File Archiving

[Alith7]

we just set-up a DROBO FS. and it works great!

Drobo - Small Box, Big Storage

you will need to have a Gigbit network system to read/write to it with any speed, but the flexibility of it is amazing!

The only thing is pay attention to how you format the drives when you start! I didn't and now unfortunately all my fonts are corrupt, but I have everything backed up in multiple locations and burned to DVDs.

[tvandeve]

Ditto on the Drobo. They rock. It just plain works, no messing with settings. Works on PC and Mac. Makes my Time Machine almost limitless.

[David Milisock]

We suggest a RAID 5 server with hot swopable drives, redundant removable USB drives swapped out each week. So many software packages and hardware combinations that the list of good choices would be extensive.

[mattbeals]

Skip RAID 5 and go with RAID 6 since it is much more resilient. Or, striped mirrors if the budget allows.

[David Milisock]

The RAID 6 overhead for write may be an issue for large volumes of large files but our two installs seem ok but the shops have smalller file volumes.
We haven't had ant real issue since the redundant USB drives have gotten to be about $10o for a terabyte in some cases we are running 3 USB drive. One client with veternary imaging uses quad backups abd RAID 5 with no issues. I'm thinking mayber RAID 6 with their new server.

BTW have yiou tired the Raptor drives? I have used them for about 30 systems and have no complaints as long as you prepare for the heat issue but I believe our next test system will be solid state.

[Tech]

We have been considering Drobo S or FS vs Synology DiskStation DS1511. Synology is more compiling with better network sharing performance and scalable storage... adding Synology DX510, you can expend up to 45TB. It's not like we'll ever get up to 45TB but it's good have as an option. It does support Raid 6 as well but I'll need to look into that.

Thanks for the replies.

[Alith7]

We have been considering Drobo S or FS vs Synology DiskStation DS1511. Synology is more compiling with better network sharing performance and scalable storage... adding Synology DX510, you can expend up to 45TB. It's not like we'll ever get up to 45TB but it's good have as an option. It does support Raid 6 as well but I'll need to look into that.

Thanks for the replies.

Never say never....
my first mac tower had a 10GB hard drive that I thought was just HUGE. Now the Mac OS wouldn't even fit in 10GB. on top of that, my first external back-up was a 2TB laCie that we spent $2100 on and thought it was a good price. Now I look at my 10TB Drobo and think that should make it another 2 years before I need more archive space.

[David Milisock]

We have been considering Drobo S or FS vs Synology DiskStation DS1511. Synology is more compiling with better network sharing performance and scalable storage... adding Synology DX510, you can expend up to 45TB. It's not like we'll ever get up to 45TB but it's good have as an option. It does support Raid 6 as well but I'll need to look into that.

Thanks for the replies.

45 Tb there's a size to live with. :-)