Someone finds the thread fishy so I'll provide more details, I tried to keep the original post short although the following will give more context to my original request.
I had the 3 Drobo drives connected to a first generation MacPro and they worked fine. I only started having the disconnection issue after buying the new MacPro (Model identifier MacPro5,1). I bought the DroboElite at the same time as the new MacPro. Prior to this, the two DroboPros were working fine on the previous MacPro, however, I was having video choppiness. I added the Droboelite since it was supposed to be faster and I did confirm that the video choppiness was gone once I loaded the videos on the DroboElite.
With the drive disconnection issue, at first, Apple went through the typical diagnostics with me of isolating the issue, I installed the MacOS on a separate internal drive with nothing else other than the Drobo Dashboard app that is required for the Drobos to work. After doing so, I continued to have the issue. DataRobotics was identifying that it was the MacPro that was the problem and didn't take ownership at all, they pointed me to replace my Ethernet cables, eliminating the switch or replace it, getting a separate Ethernet card with its own driver, running through all possible combination of drives testing and saving diagnostics files (drive a+b only, dribe b+c only, dribe a+c only, only using one drive at a time, copying from internal drives to Drobos and vice-versa,.... DataRobotics were telling me that the ethernet port speed was switching down which was resulting in the Drobos disconnecting and suggested that there might be a problem with the Ethernet port driver so they pointed me to add a separate Ethernet card in the Mac which I did and also to only have drives on the switch (ie: remove printers,....).
i came across a company SmallTree that manufacturers high end Ethernet cards so I bought a PEG6 card, the company creates their own drivers. After spending $900 on the card and also replacing all Ethernet cables to CAT6, that did not resolve the issue at all. The SmallTree tech support was the one that suggested it was likely the iSCSI initiator that was the problem and that they had come across this with a company they were affiliated with and also other companies that they interface with in their products.
I hired a network expert as I am not a network engineer and he identified that my network was configured and working properly. He did some benchmark tests and said the Drobos would need tuning with the iSCSI intiator to do bigger I/O size. he said he estimates the DroboPro do I/O at around 120K and he suggested that the iSCSI initiator could be amended to at least 1meg. I provided this info to DataRobotics technical support although I have not heard any feedback if they will consider doing so or not.
After having a possiblity that the iSCSI initiator was the problem, I provided my findings to Datarobotics.
Drobos require an application be running 'Drobo Dashboard' in order to get the drives to work at all and there are very few parameters to set, everything is hidden behind the scene. I don't know where to look for an alternative iSCSI initiator and even if one is found, I don't know that it would work with the Drobo drives and the Drobo Dashboard. If anybody can point me in a direction of something to try out, I'll do so.
The DataRobitics engineer told me verbally that they engineering has identified a problem with running in 64bit kernel mode although he did not obtain any commitment at all from their engineering if they will resolve it nor when. I don't know anything about that level of engineering (ie: iSCSI initiator), what it does, where to get a replacement, how to find out what is compatible....
To answer the question about why I want to run in 64bit mode, I don't have a specific need for it although I purchased the new MacPro and DroboElite to resolve some video choppiness issues that I was having. DataRobotics were telling me that my older MacPro was too old and was likely the problem so I replaced everything so I'm merely looking at having a better and faster environment to resolve the issues I was having before. 64bit kernel is the default configuration of the new MacPro and I was guessing that the system would run faster all around. I didn't even know that this was an option to run in 64bit kernel or 32bit kernel until Apple asked me to try it out. After investigation, it was discovered that this was one of the differences between my older MacPro and the new one. After restarting in 32bit mode, I no longer had any Drobo disconnections issues. I have been looking for a solution so that I can boot in the 64bit mode as I am assuming that the system does not run as fast as it could and I dropped $12,000 on a MacPro, I would like it to run as fast as it can.
After Apple replaced the logic board, they had escalated it to engineering and were requesting information from DataRobotics to confirm if they could identify if the problem was with DataRobotics or if it was a problem with Apple. The Apple engineer told me that the Apple engineering would deal with Intel if it was their problem. I requested written confirmation from DataRobotics although they have not provided anything at all
in writing to date. The Datarobics technical support got me to rerun some tests I had already done and I did so 2 weeks ago although had no response yet.
To date, I spent over 100 hours of time to get to a state that at least the Drobos are operational in 32bit mode.
I also suspect that Datarobotics will eventually upgrade the iSCSI initiator or whatever it is they do with the Drobo Dashboard that may be having an issue with 64bit kernel although I don't know how long it will take.
I bought the DroboElite at the same time as my new MacPro and dropped $4000 on the device + another $1,500 on 8 drives. Since the technology is not working well, I have an option to return it and get something else. I'll still have the 2 DroboPros that are not working in 64bit mode in doing so, however, I am looking at other technology that may work in 64bit mode.
The reality that took me time to discover is that the DroboPros are quite slow compared to other technology. They are nice looking machines and very quiet and when working, are great, although I had numerous issues over the years. One of the more serious issues that was not resolved with the DroboPros was video choppiness when playing back videos stored on the device. The DataRobotics engineer told me the drives are not intended for primary storage and that they are intended as backup drives. I didn't see this documented in the marketing material anywhere, I had bough these devices for primary storage. The DroboElite does playback videos stored on it without the video choppiness so that resolves that issue however, I'm now left with drives that are apparently only supposed to be used for backups.
I had many issues with Drobos over the years and the new 64bit issue was the icing on the cake for me after spending over 100 hours of my time and all of the money that I spent replacing cables, replacing the switch to a SMB class, buying a separate network card and the technical support expert that I hired. In all cases, DataRobotics have pointed the finger at Apple although in most situations, it eventually was identified that the issue was with DataRobotics and they would eventually resolve the issue in updated firmware or Drobo Dashboard though not usually acknowledging that the issue was theirs to begin with. I find this absolutely aggravating.
My quest to get new drives was initiated by the Drobos not working in 64bit mode and after what I discovered about the drives not being intended for primary storage, this added motivation for me to replace the technology with something that I can use for primary storage. Perhaps I can continue to use the DroboPros for backups although I will return the DroboElite.
Someone posted a response to this thread with suggestions for hardware and then deleted it. I'm stlll interested in finding out what you suggest, I think it was Sans Digital solution.
The noise level of the Drobo devices and the MacPro are totally OK with me. The studio lights I use also have some fans although these are not too loud either. I don't really know how to identify what is the noise level that would be acceptable other than to say that imagine yourself as a client in a studio and what the experience would be like if you heard loud fans as you were being photographed. I used to use PCs several years ago and some of them were very noisy, I find I like the quietness of the MacPros as well as Drobo so I'm looking for something similar.
The vendor I deal with in Toronto offered me some solutions although they told me they are professional storage solutions and are noisy and that for some of their clients that required a quieter environment, they sell them a noise cancellation box although they told me that these are big and I don't have a lot of space in my studio to store such a thing. The three possibilities they offered me are:
- CineRAID 32TB Rackmount EditPRO
- CalDigit 16TB HDOne RAID - 2 units
- Stardom SohoTank 8 Bay SATA Chassis with eSATA PCIe card - 2 units
Also, SmallTree mentioned a couple of other manufactures:
- GraniteStone
- CoreRaid
I'm not partial to any company at all although I want it to fit the critieria I already mentioned (ie: works with MacPro 64bit kernel, capacity I need, quiet, reliable, fast, good technical support).
Any advice you could provide, be it prosumer or pro level would be appreciated. Although I'm not made of money, I will spend the required $'s to get what I need although I want it to be able to have the storage capacity that I need, a quality product with proper technical support if required and for it to be reasonably quiet.
It's not easy for me to figure this out as there aren't any stores that carry high capacity storage solutions like what I use, I cannot go to and see the different options and hear what they sound like so I'm looking for input from anyone that has experience with what I'm looking for and could provide some direction. I thought I had found something through Netgear and was highly disappointed with my experience with technical support and pre-sales so I'm turning here for input.
