Wow. Six years ago, I was working for a muti billion-dollar storage company and I saw my first demo of BeyondRAID (before a Drobo existed). I was blown away by the simplicity and flexibility of the storage stack. I had to have it and I quickly became an early Drobo adopter in my own home. Now, I manage the Drobo product family and we are releasing new Drobos based on a platform that has a ground-up design. I am very excited!
The new Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini have everything that we (and I) have always loved from Drobo, with the addition of blazing fast performance, more robust data protection, and an innovative use of solid state drives (SSDs).
Drobo was the first storage array that allowed users to grow their storage as their needs changed with the flexibility to mix and match disk drive sizes. Now, these new Drobos allow you to use hard disk drives (HDDs) and SSDs is the same system, providing the same flexibility value as the storage industry makes it’s long transition to flash-based media.
Check out a video about the Drobo 5D, featuring me, to learn more. I cannot stand listening to myself, so let me know how it is. 
Erik Pounds
Erik is Vice President of Product Management @ Drobo. Responsible for product lifecycle, roadmaps, and technical product marketing, he sets the direction for products at Drobo. (Cool job!) Prior to Drobo, Erik held key product management and marketing rolls at Brocade, Adaptec, and EMC.
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http://blog.drobo.com
Sir,
This Thunderbolt Drobo 5D looks fantastic. It looks like Drobo addressed almost all of the concerns people had, including the need for new internals to deal with Thundebolts blazing speeds. And the SSD add on is so dang good. But the icing on the cake is the included Thunderbolt cable – something no other manufacturer has done thus far.
I do have one concern. In the specs it says that up to six Drobos can be daisy-chained, and terminated with a *non*-Thunderbolt display. This leads to several questions:
1. Does this mean that a mini-Display Port display can be connected?
2. Can a Thundebolt display be used if it isn’t the sixth device in the chain? Ie, if one Drobo is used, can a Thunderbolt display be plugged into it as the second device in the chain?
3. Apple’s Thunderbolt displays have a second Thunderbolt port. Can the Drobo be daisy chained from the Apple display (ie, but the Drobos downstream of the display instead of the display downstream of the drives)?
Thank you kindly, and congratulations on the new fantastic products.
Hi Bobby, (posting this comment from Erik) Yes, any DisplayPort monitor can be connected to the end of a Thunderbolt daisy-chain. There are even more options (DVI, HDMI, etc.) with dongles. A Thunderbolt display, because it incorporates full Thunderbolt capabilities, can exist anywhere in the Thunderbolt daisy-chain. It does not have to be at the end. So you can connect one of these new Drobos to the Apple Thunderbolt Display since it has a Thunderbolt port.
Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
I bought a Firewire Drobo 3 years ago and was extremely disappointed by its performance, and how the Drobo would get disconnected by the Firewire when not active, corrupting HFS+ partition and causing 30+ hour file system checks.
Even when it worked, the performance with Apple Aperture was atrocious, and it was unusable for Final Cut.
Since then the Drobo Firewire has sat under my desk as a ver expensive brick.
I really wanted to by into the Drobo eco-system but my woeful experience of the Drobo Firewire made me via I would never use Drobo products again.
The Drobo 5D sounds promising. Maybe I would by it. I will wait for trusted reviews before I do, and probably wait for several rounds of software updates to the Drobo (that never materialized for the Drobo Firewire) before making a purchasing decision.
It’s a shame. I really, REALLY wanted to be a Drobo evangelist. But once bitten, twice shy.
Paul Adams,
Registered Drobo owner, but not a Drobo user.
I wou
Very nice video, Erik! I was wondering if the accelerator bay was one of the five drive bays reserved for a SSD, whether we could still just use all hard disks, etc., but the shot of the actual location of the accelerator bay beneath the unit saved maybe a thousand words.
A nice concise overview of the new product, which sounds very cool, but you need to slow down the pace of your speech a bit. In the video medium its also OK to leave a pregnant pause between important points. Maybe your video editor was trying to cram it all in, or maybe you just needed less coffee that morning
Hi Mark, thanks for the feedback – I think you are probably right – the video editor was probably a little over-caffeinated as were we all yesterday getting ready for the launch today! Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
How are off-site backups handled by the Drobo 5D? Is there a web GUI that allows one to set up backup jobs to a drive connected to the USB port so that this drive could be taken off-site? Or will this have to be managed exclusively by OS X?
(posting response from Erik) Backing up your data offsite is a good thing to do. It is the only way to protect against a major disaster like fire, flood, theft, etc. Since Drobo 5D and Drobo Mini are direct-attached storage devices, thet are managed by an application running on Mac OS X (or Windows for PC users). You can use an application such as Carbon Copy Cloner to back up data on one drive to another, or you can use an application such as CrashPlan to back up your data to the cloud. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Ok… I am extremely impressed with the specs for new DROBO 5D. About two (2) weeks ago I purchased a DROBO FS with six (6) Seagate 3TB HDD’s. I am still in the process of backing up two 3TB HDD’s. Yes, it is painfully slow with many hundred of thousands of .html and .txt files among many other file types. Most of the .html and .txt files are numerically named with up to 30-digits in each file name. The FS is NAS through my Gigabit router and computer ports. I need something much faster at storing files and doing daily updates to my backup.
1. Can the 5D be used as a NAS, by using an adapter, rather than a DAS?
2. Does the 5D use standard or enterprise HDD’s?
Regards,
Dennis B
Hi Dennis, sorry for our delay in responding to your questions. Working on responses, coming soon. Victoria Thomas, admin
(posting for Erik) Q: Can the 5D be used as a NAS, by using an adapter, rather than a DAS? A: As an alternative to the network-connected Drobo FS, you can make the Drobo 5D network connected by attaching it to a computer and enabling file sharing. For example, I connect my “direct-attached” Drobo to a Mac Mini and it’s the ultimate home server. It has the power and flexibility of OS X on the Mini and the protection and expandability of Drobo for storage. You could achieve the same with a small Windows-based computer as well.
Q: Does the 5D use standard or enterprise HDD’s? A:The Drobo 5D can use both “desktop” and/or “enterprise” SATA drives since it can be purchased empty, giving you the ability to choose. Cheers, Victoria Thomas, admin
Is it RAID only or can we use as JBOD?
Hi Lloyd, actually a Drobo array uses what we call BeyondRAID technology. Read more @ http://www.drobo.com/how-it-works/beyond-raid.php (don’t mean to plug the website, but it’s a pretty good explanation). Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Does the D5 allow acceleration via an SSD in one of the 5 drive bays (with the other bays HDD) rather than using the mSATA slot? I have an existing SSD I would like to use. Or via 2 SSDs ans 3 HDDs?
Yes, you can use an SSD in one of the 5 drive bays and populate the other bays with HDDs. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Can the Drobo Mini use hybrid SSD/HDD drives? I’m looking at one particular manufacturer that has a 2.5″ – 750GB w/8GB SLC cache. What would be the best type of mSATA to match with four hybrid drives? I’m guessing 32 to 64 GB of SLC flash. What would be the expected throughput of that kind of configuration.
If the throughput will be 400 to 600 MB/s on ThunderBolt, I will buy a Drobo Mini. If the throughput is 300 to 400 MB/s, I will consider it; below 300 MB/s, I won’t.
Hi David (posting response for Erik Pounds) Drobo Mini will support hybrid drives like the Seagate Momentus XT. We have not published our SSD compatibility list (they’re all very different), so please stay tuned with regards to which SSDs to use. There will be a performance advantage to having an mSATA SSD paired with hybrid drives in the Drobo Mini and that mSATA drive does not have to be SLC flash (MLC is fine for this Drobo). We are not publishing performance data at this time, but our goal is to impress you. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
UPDATE ON THIS COMMENT: Hybrid drives such as the Seagate Momentus XT are not supported at this time. Victoria Thomas, admin
So, the moderator takes time to reach-out to positive posts, but does not bother to respond to a Drobo owner who has had a very bad product experience?
Yesterday it took 2 hours for my response to be approved while positive responses appeared on this page around my in-moderation comment.
And yet NO ONE at Drobo has ever reached-out to me regarding my negative experience: not here, not to surveys I have completed, nor to technical support queries I have submitted.
Ignoring me will not make disappear. There is such a thing as social media.
If only Drobo’s after sales support was as slick as their marketing.
Hi Paul, yesterday was hectic around here and we have a number of people in NY so trying to handle all comments on all sites has been challenging. I’d be interested in finding out if you have one or more open cases with Supoort re: your technical issues. If so, I would be happy to help you pursue with Support. Let me know. Best regards, Victoria Thomas, admin
I noticed on the back of the 5D it appears the fan might be bigger, or at least better ventilated. Does this mean it’s quieter than the 2nd generation Drobo?
While I’m mostly used to it the Drobo at times is very loud. A quieter device would be most welcome.
I would love the speed of a thunderbolt when doing some of my work though. This is great news either way.
Hi Clark, yes, we expect that the 5D will be quieter than the Drobo S. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
performance specifics? While spacious, Drobo’s have always been slow for the amount they cost. Now with thunderbolt and SSD’s, it would be interesting to see actual read/write speeds.
Hi Peter, we will be releasing some benchmarks on the new units in July. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Hi Victoria – Have the benchmarks now been released? I didn’t see them on the main site. Thanks, Edward
No, not yet. I’ll be back in the office tomorrow and I’ll double-check. V.
Hello,
Will Drobo recommend using performance enterprise SATA drives in the 5D? Currently performance enterprise SATA drives are supported but not recommended in the Drobo and Drobo S, according to your “Choose the Right Drive” page.
Can’t wait to see the benchmarks!
I’m a 2nd Gen Drobo user (4 bay). Will I be able take my drive pack to a 5D?
Hi John, Here is a statement about supported migrations: Disk packs from Drobo (Gen 2) and Drobo S can be migrated to the new Drobo 5D. So it looks as if you will be able to move your drive pack to a 5D. Hope that’s good news. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Thanks Victoria… was going to get a Drobo S USB 3.0, but seems like I should hold out for the 5D… can’t wait.
I’ve been looking into Drobo to use it as a media server for my 5000+ movie collection. I know it will take a long time to populate Hard drives with Handbrake rips of my personal DVD’s. Can I start buying 3TB drives and start filling them up with my movies awhile I wait for the Drobo 5D to be released, and then just fit them inside the Drobo unit?
Hi Raul, When you add drive to a Drobo unit for the first time, the drives are reformatted and any data is overwritten. You could, however, beg, borrow, or steal (OK, we don’t recommend that you steal) a Drobo (Gen 2) 4-bay or 5-bay Drobo S, load up the drives with your files, and then migrate the drives to your new Drobo 5D. Consult this page for information about supported migrations: http://www.drobo.com/products/migrations.php. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Thanks Victoria. Any info as to when the Drobo 5D will be released? Pricing info?
Hi Raul, info on ordering and availability will be announced in July. Here is a pricing guideline from the webcast last week, “Pricing for Drobo 5D will start under $850 including Thunderbolt cable” Also, in addition to the product pages on drobo.com, there is an FAQ page @ http://www.drobo.com/products/faq-drobo-mini-5d.php. We’ll be adding more Q&A later today or tomorrow morning based on questions that have come in via Twitter, Facebook, this blog site, and the webcast itself! Best, Victoria
Hi – any idea if Apple’s recently-announced firewire to thunderbolt adapter will allow a 5D to connect to a pre-thunderbolt Mac (i.e. using the firewire port, albeit at firewire speeds)? Thanks!
Hi Jack, checking …. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Hi, Some info about the adapter: The Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter is designed to allow users to connect FireWire devices into their Thunderbolt-equiped computer. It is not intended to do the opposite and adapt Thunderbolt devices so they can connect to FireWire-equpted computers. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Unfortunately my experience with firewire Drobo is similar to the one of Paul Adams (see above). I have observed all sorts of weird Drobo behavior during these years. Fortunately I have never lost information, but there were few pretty close calls. After accidental cable disconnections, power failures and just plain out of the blue Drobo reports one of the perfectly good drives as failed and starts rebuilding process lasting many hours.
As for new thunderbolt drobo, I am afraid that anticipated 5 time increase in speed (taken from Drobo 5D FAQ) is nothing to be proud of. On my firewire Drobo I get 25 MB/s at best. Promise Pegasus thunderbolt array has 20 times better performance (500 Mb/s) !
I appreciate that only Drobo allows you to mix drive sizes in an array, but for me it is too much of a price to pay for slowness and lack of reliability. It seems like Drobo still has a long way to go to match the traditional RAID speed and reliability. Sorry, but until then I am not buying another Drobo.
Hi Alex, We will be tuning performance of the Mini and the 5D right up until they are released – and at that time we’ll also release benchmark performance test results – so you can make up your mind about whether they will meet your performance requirements. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Thanks Victoria – that’s a shame for those of us hoping to use these with older Macs (whilst allowing for a good upgrade path), especially as it appears that your pre-release hardware did include firewire. Thanks again!
Any news on the performance yet? It’s a Drobo or a Pegasus for me
Hi, just finalizing a post from Tom for tomorrow – may not be exactly what you’re looking for but may help. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
The blog ‘Of 100 Drobos and GoodMakers Films’ doesn’t help.
Sorry – the other one is still working and the GoodMakers Films post was something completely different. Best, Victoria
I’m also interested to know whether the 5D can be attached to a network via an adaptor, as well as see some comparison speed tests.
Also, it would be *really* helpful if your blog attached responses to the initial queries, rather than have them join the bottom of the list each time!
Hi Edward, thanks for the tip – I appreciate it. Here is the info I think you’re looking for. As an alternative to the network-connected Drobo FS, for example, you can make the Drobo 5D network connected by attaching it to a computer and enabling file sharing. For example, one of our employees connects his “direct-attached” Drobo to a Mac Mini and it’s the ultimate home server. It has the power and flexibility of OS X on the Mac Mini and the protection and expandability of Drobo for storage. You could achieve the same with a small Windows-based computer as well. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin
Hi Victoria – Thanks for your response.
I’ve just been looking into migrating the data from my Drobo FS to a new 5D but it appears it’s not possible???
http://www.drobo.com/products/migrations.php
Is this an ‘update’ that will be implemented later, or is it simply not possible? If not possible, can you please explain why not?
Thanks, Edward
Hi Edward, I’ll see what I can find out. V.
I don’t this will never be possible because of the different ways of formatting data in a shared environment vs. a DAS environment. NAS units are CIFS/SMB based and you can create multiple shares with our NAS Drobos, whereas DAS units are intended for a single host; the file systems won’t work with one another. Best, Victoria
Sorry – typing to fast. I meant to say “I don’t this this will ever be possible …” V.
Hi Victoria.
OK, understood, thank you.
I note the B1200i now also supports SSD. Am I right in thinking there will soon be a new FS model with SSD support?
Thanks again, Edward
Hi Edward, well, I can’t comment on the product roadmap but it makes sense …. Victoria
Hi Edward – thanks again for the tip. We’ve updated the settings to display replies to comments under the comment it is intended for. Best, Victoria
Hi Victoria – No problem at all, and congrats on implementing the change. It’s so much easier to follow what’s going on now!
You’re welcome – glad to do it! Best, Victoria
Can’t wait to see the published speeds, but I can’t pre-order until I see some numbers. And I hope the data rebuilds are much, much, much, much faster…like 12 hours, instead of 4 days. Also a discount for brand loyalty wouldn’t hurt, for those of us rocking 1st, 2nd and FS Drobos. $50 credit for each prior Drobo owned. Now THAT’s a marketing push! It’s ok, tell them it was your idea.
Hi, I love it and I’ll take your advice and tell them it was my idea. THANKS! Victoria, admuin
I’m in the same boat as Ross. There’s no way I would pre-order without seeing some sort of transfer rate benchmarks. My Firewire 800 Drobo gets about 40 MB/sec reading and a pathetic 12 MB/sec writing large files. Compare those to transferring to my NAS box that gets 70 MB/sec reading and 60 MB/sec writing and has to go over a little gigabit network link and you can see that Drobo really needs to get the performance of these storage devices up to par against the rest of the market.
I hope you get there with the new devices, but I have to be skeptical before investing in another Drobo.
the Mini / 5D was announced 3+ months ago & there are no transfer speeds published or release date!
what is happening ?
Think like / aspire to be more Apple like – they announce a product and it’s either ready to ship next day or they specify the date.
thanks
Hi Alex, You can see some performance numbers @ http://www.drobo.com/how-it-works/performance-professional.php. Tom B. will have some news on shipping tomorrow. Best, Victoria Thomas, admin