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    NAS for Mac environment

    IT Discussion
    mac mac osx storage apple nas
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    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller @Ambarishrh
      last edited by

      @Ambarishrh said:

      On the "Choose the right DROBO for you section" i just checked
      Screen Shot 2015-07-15 at 1.03.45 AM.png

      When you select the second option and then 2-5TB you get the Drobo 5D, when you choose the 3rd option with 2-5TB takes me the one you said Drobo B800i 🙂

      The B800i is 8 bays, rack mount, no cache.

      The 5N is 5 bays, desk mount, single SSD cache option.

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      • scottalanmillerS
        scottalanmiller
        last edited by

        The B1200i is 12 bays, with an option 9 spinning rust with 3 SSD cache with lots of redundancy and rack mount.

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        • AmbarishrhA
          Ambarishrh
          last edited by

          The current problems i needed to solve is the slow access. I think enabling backup of the data to their existing NAS drive could add as a second copy in case something goes wrong with the new one.

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          • scottalanmillerS
            scottalanmiller @Ambarishrh
            last edited by

            @Ambarishrh said:

            So once the DROBO is mounted on the MAC, then that can be shared by switching on the file sharing on the mac server. Hope this is a good path to go

            Correct. The Drobo mounts on the Mac like you added a local drive. Then you share it just like making any file share.

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            • AmbarishrhA
              Ambarishrh
              last edited by

              tomorrow would be quite a lot of calls to vendors on pricing! 🙂

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              • AmbarishrhA
                Ambarishrh
                last edited by

                Screen Shot 2015-07-15 at 1.10.52 AM.png

                This seems to be a good option giving me a usable space of 5TB with dual disk redundancy.

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                • AmbarishrhA
                  Ambarishrh
                  last edited by

                  Just listing what I find useful for me, might be a good starting point for someone else in the future.
                  Screen Shot 2015-07-15 at 1.12.39 AM.png

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                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller
                    last edited by

                    Keep in mind that the B800i is SATA only. SAS drive options do not exist until you use the B1200i.

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                    • scottalanmillerS
                      scottalanmiller
                      last edited by

                      We use the B800i behind our XenServer in the lab. Works really well. We are on RAID 6 (dual redundancy as they call it) of course.

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                      • DashrenderD
                        Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                        last edited by

                        @scottalanmiller said:

                        @Ambarishrh said:

                        How does it work with MAC?

                        Macs talk the same protocols as everyone else. SMB first, NFS second and AFP deprecated but included. There is no concept of "storage for Mac" anymore. That's an old idea.

                        The only thing to be aware of is the Finder issue and that plagues all non-Mac native storage equally.

                        This is good to know...

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                        • DashrenderD
                          Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                          last edited by

                          @scottalanmiller said:

                          • Give up on file sharing and move to SAN + clustered filesystem like SAN-MP so that you are using a Mac-managed HFS+ system.

                          I can only imagine how expensive that would be!

                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • scottalanmillerS
                            scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                            last edited by

                            @Dashrender said:

                            @scottalanmiller said:

                            • Give up on file sharing and move to SAN + clustered filesystem like SAN-MP so that you are using a Mac-managed HFS+ system.

                            I can only imagine how expensive that would be!

                            It's not horrible, presumably because you go cheap on the SAN side. SAN and NAS are the same price, so you aren't losing a lot there. SAN-MP is in the same price range as a good Finder replacement. So we aren't talking about anything crazy. But not cheap like Windows or Linux would be.

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                            • AmbarishrhA
                              Ambarishrh
                              last edited by

                              Hi all

                              Just an update on this:

                              Found one vendor in Dubai and seems like they are the only one for Drobo through out the GCC!

                              I asked for a demo unit and they dont have B800i, and instead they were suggesting me to check Drobo Mini/ an alternate device which i guess is their custom device as there are no specs/details on their site.

                              Not sure if a Drobo mini is a good idea for 30-50 users working on Photoshop with big image files.

                              scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • scottalanmillerS
                                scottalanmiller @Ambarishrh
                                last edited by

                                @Ambarishrh said:

                                Not sure if a Drobo mini is a good idea for 30-50 users working on Photoshop with big image files.

                                Ha ha. The Drobo Mini is not a SAN, it's a single user external drive device. Yes, it is a full RAID unit with four drives in it (all 2.5" SATA) but it is a direct attach only and is designed to be exactly the same as a really nice external USB drive except faster with RAID protection. That's all. Super high end USB drive.

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                                • AmbarishrhA
                                  Ambarishrh
                                  last edited by

                                  Thanks! I will speak to them to get a B800i, the single vendor for the whole region is a bit worrying.

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                                  • ?
                                    A Former User @scottalanmiller
                                    last edited by

                                    @scottalanmiller said:

                                    @Ambarishrh said:

                                    Not sure if a Drobo mini is a good idea for 30-50 users working on Photoshop with big image files.

                                    Ha ha. The Drobo Mini is not a SAN, it's a single user external drive device. Yes, it is a full RAID unit with four drives in it (all 2.5" SATA) but it is a direct attach only and is designed to be exactly the same as a really nice external USB drive except faster with RAID protection. That's all. Super high end USB drive.

                                    I suppose you could plug that into a Mac Mini and use it with a file server. Personally, I'd run some monitoring for 24-48 hrs to get the IOPS they need.

                                    scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • scottalanmillerS
                                      scottalanmiller
                                      last edited by

                                      If you use the Drobo B800i you have a SAN that goes onto the network and you can use software like SAN-MP to share it between nodes. With a Drobo Mini you just have a USB or Thunderbolt DAS drive with SSDs or laptop drives in it. You would attach that directly to a Mac Mini and use the Mac Mini as a NAS head to share out the storage. So the cost and complexity of using the Drobo Mini is much higher. Very different approaches.

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                                      • scottalanmillerS
                                        scottalanmiller @A Former User
                                        last edited by

                                        @thecreativeone91 said:

                                        @scottalanmiller said:

                                        @Ambarishrh said:

                                        Not sure if a Drobo mini is a good idea for 30-50 users working on Photoshop with big image files.

                                        Ha ha. The Drobo Mini is not a SAN, it's a single user external drive device. Yes, it is a full RAID unit with four drives in it (all 2.5" SATA) but it is a direct attach only and is designed to be exactly the same as a really nice external USB drive except faster with RAID protection. That's all. Super high end USB drive.

                                        I suppose you could plug that into a Mac Mini and use it with a file server. Personally, I'd run some monitoring for 24-48 hrs to get the IOPS they need.

                                        That would be the intended use (we hope.)

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                                        • scottalanmillerS
                                          scottalanmiller
                                          last edited by

                                          Drobo B800i: Rack mounted 3U SAN, 8x 3.5" SATA bays in RAID 6 for up to 48TB of usable SAN storage, but very slow. Connects over GigE iSCSI.

                                          Drobo Mini: External hard drive form factor DAS 4x 2.5" SATA bays in RAID 5 (if SSD) or RAID 6 (if spinning rust) for up to about 1.5TB of usable capacity connecting over USB 3 or Thunderbolt and very fast (if using SSDs.)

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                                          • scottalanmillerS
                                            scottalanmiller
                                            last edited by

                                            Drobo Mini:

                                            Drobo Mini Front

                                            Drobo Mini Back

                                            Drobo Mini Bottom

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