Drobo Pro + Apple TV and iTunes

[Rmafive]

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a drobo pro with 16 TB's and a drobo share to create a network attached storage device for the 5 macs in my house. I also have an apple TV in my home theater and I have a couple questions. How should I configure my network attached storage device to do the following:
1. A shared iTunes library for all of my macs.
2. A storage device for the apple tv library
3. A time machine backup for all of my macs.

Thanks for any help

 

[CBlakeston]

The Drobo Share is only compatible with the regular Drobo. The Drobo Pro is another beast entirely. As I understand it, it only connects directly to a computer, not a network, though once connected you can easily share it over the network. Your best way to connect it would be via the iScuzzy connection to your Mac that is always on (server?) Then:

1:Share the iTunes library like you would any other.
2: Setup your Apple TV as normal with iTunes to access your iTunes content
3: Setup Time Machine as normal?

Once the the Drobo Pro is shared on the network, there's nothing special about it, it's just another hard drive so just set things up as though you'd just plugged in any other hard drive.

 

[alFR]

The only thing I'd add is that it might be wise to make a separate partition on the Drobo for your TM backups: otherwise, Time Machine will gradually fill up the whole drive with backups (it keeps backing up until the drive is full, then starts throwing away the oldest backups). I set up a 600Gb TM partition on mine, left the rest as one big volume for my iTunes library etc.

 

[reebzor]

As I understand it, it only connects directly to a computer, not a network,

The drobo pro has an ethernet port. Buying a drobo share for a drobo pro is just unnecessary.

 

[CBlakeston]

The drobo pro has an ethernet port. Buying a drobo share for a drobo pro is just unnecessary.

To be clear. It's not an Ethernet port. It's an iscuzzy port. To call it an Ethernet port implies it can link to a network like a droboshare and this isn't the case.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I'm very curious about the best setup along these lines as well. If he uses the iscsi port to connect to the always-on computer (which makes a lot of sense), and that computer has just one ethernet port (say Mac Mini or the new Mac Mini server), what's the best way to connect it to his network (best meaning to maximize speed)?

 

[Gav2k]

I had this issue and I solved it buy building a simple pc server with several nic in it. Both pros are connected to it and my drobo's are connected via FireWire. The pc also deals with torrents but that's it. If your running a mac pro you can add a nic for wired access if it's a mini connected to the pro use a pre n connection to serve your network. I've tested this and it's more than fast enough.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

...if it's a mini connected to the pro use a pre n connection to serve your network. I've tested this and it's more than fast enough.

By "pre n" do you mean wireless, as in connect the Drobo Pro via iScsi to the Mac Mini server, then connect "them" to the network via wireless. Is that really better than linking the Mac Mini server with USB2.0 to the Router, or buying some kind of adapter to add a second hardware ethernet jack (if such adapters exist). I always think of wireless as the weakest link for network speed, so I would think to use it as a last option. Are you saying it is the best if the ethernet jack is tied up for iscsi to the drobopro?

 

[CBlakeston]

If there's only one Ethernet port I'd hook it up via FireWire 800 and connect with gigabit Ethernet to the network.

 

[MacAlpha]

If there's only one Ethernet port I'd hook it up via FireWire 800 and connect with gigabit Ethernet to the network.

This is how I have my mini media server set up. I don't have a drobo pro yet (it will be my next purchase after my current external is full), but it is plenty fast enough to stream to my ATV and other computers.

 

[rickeym]

I have a older mac mini and a drobo. I plug the drobo into the mac mini and use it as an itunes server to the rest of the house. The mac mini, drobo, and an Airport Extreme base station sit in a closet, so noise from spinning hard drives, etc is a non-issue.

I stream from the mac-mini to AppleTV's that are located in the living room and bedroom.

 

[ascender]

I have a FW800 Drobo connected to my iMac, then I share the library for use by other Macs and the ATV. Apart from a slight delay in starting a song/video if the Drobo is sleeping, it works perfectly.