Big Sur w/ Drobo (Thunderbolt) - NOT Working

[hoodafoo]

On a sidenote, how do you guys like your Drobos? I was actually thinking of getting one a month ago but went with Synology because Drobo hasn't released anything in the last 2 years and it kinda looks like the company is about to go out of business TBH

 

[Lee_Mac]

On a sidenote, how do you guys like your Drobos? I was actually thinking of getting one a month ago but went with Synology because Drobo hasn't released anything in the last 2 years and it kinda looks like the company is about to go out of business TBH

Must admit I do get nervous with the state of the company. Especially as if a unit dies it has to be replaced like for like apparently. Bit hard when there's none for sale, especially in the EU area.
I have started looking about but I like the plug it in, slap any drive in you fancy, off you go. Got better things to be doing with my time than playing with RAID setups. I do have full offsite backup with BackBlaze so I'll never be totally panicking if anything goes pop. Plus file recovery insurance helps.

However, I'm certainly looking at other options, seems there's always compromises with RAID systems. I have to have direct connected TB3 due to massive video file editing so not sure currently. Was looking at the OWC units. Another potential heavy investment

For now, everything is and has been working fine up until this issue. A few odd disconnects from the 5C but been fine other than that.

 

[hoodafoo]

Must admit I do get nervous with the state of the company. Especially as if a unit dies it has to be replaced like for like apparently. Bit hard when there's none for sale, especially in the EU area.
I have started looking about but I like the plug it in, slap any drive in you fancy, off you go. Got better things to be doing with my time than playing with RAID setups. I do have full offsite backup with BackBlaze so I'll never be totally panicking if anything goes pop. Plus file recovery insurance helps.

However, I'm certainly looking at other options, seems there's always compromises with RAID systems. I have to have direct connected TB3 due to massive video file editing so not sure currently. Was looking at the OWC units. Another potential heavy investment

For now, everything is and has been working fine up until this issue. A few odd disconnects from the 5C but been fine other than that.

That's my concern, exactly. If I were to invest in a Drobo and it goes kaput down the line or no longer being updated to keep up with the times, it's just a pretty brick - a pretty brick with all my data on it!

btw, what's "file recovery insurance"???

 

[TwoBytes]

Must admit I do get nervous with the state of the company. Especially as if a unit dies it has to be replaced like for like apparently. Bit hard when there's none for sale, especially in the EU area.
I have started looking about but I like the plug it in, slap any drive in you fancy, off you go. Got better things to be doing with my time than playing with RAID setups. I do have full offsite backup with BackBlaze so I'll never be totally panicking if anything goes pop. Plus file recovery insurance helps.

However, I'm certainly looking at other options, seems there's always compromises with RAID systems. I have to have direct connected TB3 due to massive video file editing so not sure currently. Was looking at the OWC units. Another potential heavy investment

For now, everything is and has been working fine up until this issue. A few odd disconnects from the 5C but been fine other than that.

Agree with this. No time to play about! It's all about storage and go here. Just need a place to dump large footage.
Not sure of any DAS options that compare...

Want a NAS? No problem, plenty to choose (just go Synology)
DAS via USB3/TB with hot-swappable drives of any kind? I'm out of the loop but I can't think of any which is a shame.

 

[Lee_Mac]

That's my concern, exactly. If I were to invest in a Drobo and it goes kaput down the line or no longer being updated to keep up with the times, it's just a pretty brick - a pretty brick with all my data on it!

btw, what's "file recovery insurance"???

Insurance to cover professional data recovery. It's part of my overall business insurance. It's decried as "Reinstatement of Data" on my policy. Up to £10k recovery costs and actually used it about 4 years ago when a SD card decided to hide all the files from a wedding shoot. Cost a lump of money but better than losing a 3rd of the weddings footage. It cover a variety of hardware failure.

 

[Lee_Mac]

Agree with this. No time to play about! It's all about storage and go here. Just need a place to dump large footage.
Not sure of any DAS options that compare...

Want a NAS? No problem, plenty to choose (just go Synology)
DAS via USB3/TB with hot-swappable drives of any kind? I'm out of the loop but I can't think of any which is a shame.

Exactly that. I need DAS and an ever increasing storage solution without spending stupid money.

 

[jw77777]

When do you think 11.1 will drop so I can have my Drobo working again? I'm a bit worried to put the beta on. Hopefully it'll be soon.

 

[posguy99]

When do you think 11.1 will drop so I can have my Drobo working again? I'm a bit worried to put the beta on. Hopefully it'll be soon.

Just back off to Catalina.

 

[CWallace]

On a sidenote, how do you guys like your Drobos? I was actually thinking of getting one a month ago but went with Synology because Drobo hasn't released anything in the last 2 years and it kinda looks like the company is about to go out of business TBH

My 5D has been trouble-free for many years. I've had to replace two disks over that time (one as a precaution due to the error count and one that eventually hard-failed), but I run dual-disk redundancy (5x4TB with two disks as backup) so never worried about data loss. I have recently pulled the front cover off my Drobo so it can breathe better and keep it well off the desk.

I have heard a fair bit of complaints about how unreliable they are, but then it is the ones who are not having issues who don't ever say anything. I did have a Synology before my Drobo, but found it super-slow and it ate HDDs so I took a chance on the Drobo.

All the above being said, I would not buy a Drobo today. I don't like that it uses it's own proprietary data format so if you lose the box, you have to use another box. I do keep two full backups of the Drobo, so never worried about data loss, but in the future (or if my unit ever fails), I plan to get an OWC four-bay and run Raid 1+0.

 

[deverman]

I also have the problem with my Drobo not showing up on Big Sur. I saw the announcement on the FAQ that they are working on it. Waiting with Baited breath.

 

[hoodafoo]

My 5D has been trouble-free for many years. I've had to replace two disks over that time (one as a precaution due to the error count and one that eventually hard-failed), but I run dual-disk redundancy (5x4TB with two disks as backup) so never worried about data loss. I have recently pulled the front cover off my Drobo so it can breathe better and keep it well off the desk.

I have heard a fair bit of complaints about how unreliable they are, but then it is the ones who are not having issues who don't ever say anything. I did have a Synology before my Drobo, but found it super-slow and it ate HDDs so I took a chance on the Drobo.

All the above being said, I would not buy a Drobo today. I don't like that it uses it's own proprietary data format so if you lose the box, you have to use another box. I do keep two full backups of the Drobo, so never worried about data loss, but in the future (or if my unit ever fails), I plan to get an OWC four-bay and run Raid 1+0.

Just like Synology's SHR format is based off of Linux Raid and I'm sure Drobo's BeyondRaid is no different. But yeah, it adds that extra layer of complexity if you were to ever have to extract your data (hopefully NOT!)

Also, not entirely fair that your comparing a 5Gb/s DAS to a 1Gb/s NAS

Just for fun, what brand were your failed drives? 🙃

 

[CWallace]

Just for fun, what brand were your failed drives? 🙃

Seagate ST4000DM000

 

[TwoBytes]

Updated: 11/19/2020

We are in the process of posting Drobo Dashboard v3.5.2 to our downloads and docs page. This will give you access to Thunderbolt:

Frequently Asked Questions: macOS 11 Big Sur

 

[CWallace]

Now which will drop first - macOS 11.1 or DD 3.5.2?

And here is hoping 3.5.2 and 11.1 play nice together...

 

[Torq]

You can download the updated Drobo Dashboard 3.5.2, which supposedly fixes the problems, directly from here.

No idea why it has taken more than a day to get that link posted directly on their site, but you can find it in their community support forums. Multiple people there have said it works.

I have not tried it, nor the 11.1 beta, myself (I moved my Drobos to an old Catalina machine and relegated them to non-critical media storage duties).

 

[CWallace]

Can confirm that Dashboard 3.5.2 has restored Drobo Thunderbolt connectivity in macOS 11.0.1.

 

[salvatorej]

Can confirm that Dashboard 3.5.2 has restored Drobo Thunderbolt connectivity in macOS 11.0.1.

Not for me, unfortunately. Tried restarting both Drobo and Mac. Drobo shows up in Dashboard but Disk Utility shows 'uninitialized.'

 

[Stentdoctor]

I will add my 2 cents. I agree with many, I should have searched for Drobo issues prior to upgrading. Now I have placed both my drobo units on USB3 - Big Sur has changed the screen icons to some "gold plated" ssd icon. My 5 bay Drobo unmount erratically and remains unstable with that connection. The 4 bay unit is seen by I cannot perform any functions through the Drobo dashboard.

My 5 bay unit has been formatted to appear as 2 separate physical drives. I hope Drobo and Apple work this out soon.

 

[CWallace]

Not for me, unfortunately. Tried restarting both Drobo and Mac. Drobo shows up in Dashboard but Disk Utility shows 'uninitialized.'

Did you allow the System Extension under Security & Privacy?

 

[Geezergeek20]

Can confirm that Dashboard 3.5.2 has restored Drobo Thunderbolt connectivity in macOS 11.0.1.

Thank you so much Torq and CWallace. Like many others I was panicking a little; and this dashboard update solved my problem. All seems to be well now.

 

[HDFan]

On a sidenote, how do you guys like your Drobos?

Mixed feelings. Love the fact that I can mix disk sizes. When my first unit failed they gave me a good price for a replacement unit with extended warranty. Had to have that one replaced as well. Most recently added a 16 TB drive to the unit which worked. When I added the 2nd it went into an endless crash and boot. Had to wipe the Drobo, repopulated, and is working now.

I have to have direct connected TB3 due to massive video file editing so not sure currently.

QNAP has had units with both 10 GBe and thunderbolt for some time. With thunderbolt I'm getting 342 MBs write and 1544 MBs read, but results vary depending on NAS model and # of bays.

Synology lags in this area.

I have heard a fair bit of complaints about how unreliable they are, but then it is the ones who are not having issues who don't ever say anything. I did have a Synology before my Drobo, but found it super-slow and it ate HDDs so I took a chance on the Drobo.

I much prefer QNAP to Synology. Better software, faster.

I don't like that it uses it's own proprietary data format so if you lose the box, you have to use another box.

With any RAID device you are going to have problems moving disks to anything other than a device from the same vendor. If you are lucky it will work. The only exception that I can think of is Softraid which may be enclosure independent.

 

[CWallace]

With any RAID device you are going to have problems moving disks to anything other than a device from the same vendor. If you are lucky it will work. The only exception that I can think of is Softraid which may be enclosure independent.

Yes I believe that is the case. So should my Drobo enclosure ever give up the ghost, I intend to get a 4-bay OWC Thunderbolt enclosure and use Softraid in a Raid 1+0 configuration (with 8TB volumes).

 

[jw77777]

Hello, Drobo released a software update, but I'm not sure if it fixed the problem. This is the version:

But I'm still having difficulty the Drobo icon hard drive appear on my desktop. Anyone have any ideas? Also, not currently on a Big Sur Beta. too risky, as this is my main computer for work.

 

[CWallace]

Hello, Drobo released a software update, but I'm not sure if it fixed the problem.

Drobo Dashboard 3.5.2 has fixed the issue for a significant number of people, though some are reporting they are still having issues after having installed it.

In addition to the updated Dashboard, there is a new System Extension that is part of the 3.5.2 update package that has to be allowed under Preferences - Security - Privacy and then the Mac needs to be rebooted to enable it. Some of the people still having the problem after the 3.5.2 update did not also allow the System Extension. When they did, the issue was fixed.

 

[jw77777]

Drobo Dashboard 3.5.2 has fixed the issue for a significant number of people, though some are reporting they are still having issues after having installed it.

In addition to the updated Dashboard, there is a new System Extension that is part of the 3.5.2 update package that has to be allowed under Preferences - Security - Privacy and then the Mac needs to be rebooted to enable it. Some of the people still having the problem after the 3.5.2 update did not also allow the System Extension. When they did, the issue was fixed.

Thanks CWallace. I don’t see a Drobo extension in the privacy section in the system preferences. Any other suggestions? Thank you again!