Drobo

Posted by decoy on October 25, 2009 Leave a comment (3) Go to comments

I recently picked up a Drobo because like many other people in the IT world that know better, I haven’t been worried about backing up my data.

The Drobo works quite nicely and provides redundant storage for even the least tech-savvy users. You can add or remove drives on the fly and the Drobo will automatically move the data on the drives around to provide a solution that gives redundancy first and maximum usable storage second. It does not optimize for maximum throughput.

If you are just looking for a vat of storage, the Drobo will work well for you. However, I was expecting to be able to encrypt the Drobo with TrueCrypt and while it is possible, it’s much more inconvenient than doing so on a standard single drive or on some type of fixed-size array. Because the Drobo manages the disks and essentially has a dynamic size based on the disks you add or remove, you cannot use TrueCrypt to do device-level or volume-level encryption because the Drobo is not aware of how to resize with these types of encryption. If you want to use TrueCrypt on a Drobo, you have to use an encrypted file container.

If you’re curious about how much usable storage you’d have available from the Drobo based on sizes of disks you’d put in it, Data Robotics has a friendly calculator for this: Drobolator

Even though there is a slight annoyance when using a Drobo with TrueCrypt, I’d still recommend getting a Drobo. It provides simple, redundant storage that even your parents can install, use, and maintain. All they need to do is follow the information provided by the stoplight-type indicators on the right side of the Drobo (and there is a convenient legend inside of the cover).

Drobo

Drobo with cover off

Drobo with lights legend

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  • http://www.daspecster.com Tom Schultz

    That thing is awesome! I want one.

  • Phil

    I’m not following your conclusion. If, as the sole purpose of your article would seem to preface, you want to encrypt data stored on a unit that someone else can easily walk away with (both which are a reasonable premise), then Drobo is not the answer. The company fell far short in not providing controller level encryption to deal with their unique volume allocation system. The fact that one can pick up and carry one of these units under one’s arm, a unit that can contain 4-8 TB or your data, makes encryption a requirement within Drobo itself. Have you ever used Truecrypt? (Rhetorical question.) If you have, you’d know that a “fixed sized container” near equal to the size of a useful Drobo for primary or secondary data backup will take DAYS for the volume to be created. And then what? You LOSE the primary benefit of having a Drobo in the first place, which is the ease of volume expansion by simply replacing its hard drives with large ones on the fly… because your only alternative is to back up everything to SOMETHING ELSE (duh) so you can expand the Drobo volume then create another static sized volume and recreate the Truecrypt container. How the developers of Drobo left out controller-based encryption is beyond me. This is not a product for anyone who has an apartment (or even a house) without massive layers of physical protection. In the future, if you’re writing articles about a particular use of a device, let your conclusion follow logically. If someone who needs SECURITY is looking at a Drobo as a solution, he or she is better advised to look elsewhere.

  • decoy

    @Phil: I didn’t mean to suggest that the Drobo is missing a feature in partition level encryption. It was something that I had overlooked. It also seems odd that you suggest the more physically mobile (or easy to steal) a device is, the less you should consider its security because its less secure by design. I don’t agree with this at all — the more mobile something is, the more you should worry about its security. If I have a small USB drive with critical data on it, encrypting it is a requirement; to think anything else is foolish.