Introducing the Drobo 5D
The Drobo 5D is a direct-attached storage (DAS) device designed for data storage and backup. Released in 2013 by Drobo, the 5D features five 3.5″ drive bays and connects via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0, making it suitable for creative professionals and small businesses (Storage Review, 2013).
As a DAS device, the Drobo 5D attaches directly to a computer rather than connecting through a network. This provides fast, high-bandwidth connectivity for activities like photo and video editing that require accessing large media files (Griffin, 2015). The Drobo 5D’s DAS configuration focuses on giving a single user or small group high-speed access to storage.
With five drive bays, the 5D supports a range of storage configurations. Users can add drives as needed to expand capacity over time. The Drobo 5D also includes Drobo’s proprietary BeyondRAID technology, enabling flexible management of the storage array.
Drive Bays and Capacity
The Drobo 5D has 5 drive bays that support up to 5 drives (Drobo). The unique compact, carrier-less drive bay design results in an efficient storage array that saves desk space (Drobo). The 5D uses Drobo’s BeyondRAID technology, which allows you to mix drive capacities and types in the same array.
Maximum Raw Capacity
The Drobo 5D has five 3.5-inch drive bays that support 3.5-inch SATA I, II, III hard disk drives and solid state drives. With five 12TB hard drives installed, the Drobo 5D has a maximum raw capacity of up to 60TB.
According to the Drobo 5D datasheet from the company’s website, “With six Drobo 5D arrays in a chain, you can have up to 192 TB of usable capacity.” Drobo 5D
The Drobo website’s capacity calculator also confirms a maximum raw capacity of 60TB with five 12TB drives installed in a Drobo 5D. Capacity Calculator
Actual Usable Capacity
While the maximum raw capacity of the Drobo 5D is quite high, the actual usable capacity is lower. This is because some of the raw capacity must be reserved for data protection and file system overhead.
Typically, around 80-85% of the raw capacity is usable on the Drobo 5D 1. So for example, with 5 x 14TB drives equaling 70TB of raw capacity, the actual usable space would be around 56-60TB. This allows the Drobo 5D to utilize dual drive redundancy to protect against up to two drive failures without data loss.
The exact percentage of usable capacity depends on factors like the drive configuration, whether capacity expansion is enabled, and which file system is used. But in most cases, expect around 20% overhead on top of the maximum raw capacity.
Drive Options
The Drobo 5D supports 3.5 inch SATA I/II/III hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) (Drobo, Selecting Drives for High Performance With Drobo DAS, https://www.drobo.com/selecting-drives-for-high-performance-with-drobo-das/). This allows for a mix of traditional HDDs and SSDs to be used within the 5D, providing flexibility in optimizing for capacity, performance, or budget. HDDs provide high capacity storage at a lower cost, while SSDs offer significant performance benefits.
The 5D has five 3.5 inch drive bays, allowing various drive configurations depending on needs. For example, the drive bays could be populated entirely with HDDs to maximize total raw capacity. Alternatively, a few SSDs could be used along with HDDs to create a hybrid configuration that balances performance and capacity. The 5D gives users the choice on drive selection to best suit their storage requirements (Drobo, Choose Drive, https://www.drobo.com/storage-products/choose-drive/).
Drive Mixing
One of the key features of the Drobo 5D is the ability to mix drives of different capacities and types. According to Drobo’s official website, https://www.drobo.com/storage-products/choose-drive/, users can populate the 5D with SATA, SAS or SSD drives of varying capacities. For example, you could install both 4TB and 8TB HDDs to maximize capacity.
This drive mixing capability provides more flexibility compared to traditional RAID arrays that require all disks to be the same. As confirmed by users on Reddit, the Drobo 5D allows seamless combining of different drive sizes: https://www.reddit.com/r/drobo/comments/wcrgh2/drobo_5d3_can_you_mix_drive_storage_capacity/.
The ability to populate the 5D with drives of choice lets users scale storage as needed while taking advantage of price differences between drive capacities.
Expansion
The Drobo 5D can be easily expanded by daisy chaining up to a total of six Drobos via Thunderbolt 2 using supported cables. This allows you to increase overall storage capacity of the Drobo 5D as your needs grow over time (Drobo, n.d.).
Each additional Drobo 5D or 5D3 added will contribute an extra 5 drive bays and related storage capacity. For example, by daisy chaining two Drobo 5D units, you could have up to 10 drive bays and the combined raw capacity of the drives installed in each unit.
Users should note that while Thunderbolt 2 allows daisy chaining up to 6 Drobo units, the maximum number of concurrently active Drobos is limited to 2. So while you can connect up to 6 units, only 2 can be actively accessed at the same time. The remaining Drobos would need to be switched to active as needed (Drobo, 2016).
Hardware RAID
The Drobo 5D utilizes a proprietary technology called BeyondRAID that provides redundancy like traditional RAID, but without some of the limitations of hardware RAID solutions. BeyondRAID is implemented in software, allowing for more flexibility than traditional RAID controllers which rely on specific hardware configurations.
With BeyondRAID, data is distributed across all installed drives for protection against drive failure. If a drive fails, the remaining data on the other drives is used to regenerate the missing information without any downtime or user intervention. This provides redundancy without some of the rigid setup requirements of traditional RAID.
BeyondRAID also allows mixing of different drive capacities within the same array. With hardware RAID, all drives must be the same size, but with Drobo’s BeyondRAID, you can mix and match drives while still gaining capacity and protection benefits. This allows more flexibility when upgrading storage.
Additionally, BeyondRAID simplifies expansion. Adding an additional drive is all that’s needed to expand available capacity, without reformatting existing drives. Traditional RAID often requires existing drives to be wiped when adding capacity.
By implementing RAID-like redundancy in software instead of dedicated hardware, the Drobo 5D gains flexibility while still providing data protection against drive failure. This allows for more convenient storage upgrades and drive mixing without compromising availability and integrity (Drobo, n.d.).
Connectivity
The Drobo 5D offers several high-performance connectivity options to attach the storage array to your computer or network, including:
- Thunderbolt 2 – The Drobo 5D has two Thunderbolt 2 ports, which provide 20Gbps bidirectional bandwidth. This allows you to daisy chain up to 6 Thunderbolt devices. See the Drobo 5D Datasheet for details. [1]
- USB 3.0 – The Drobo 5D has one USB 3.0 port, which provides 5Gbps connectivity. This allows you to connect the Drobo to USB 3.0 enabled computers. See the Drobo 5D Getting Started Guide for details. [2]
- Gigabit Ethernet – The Drobo 5D has an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port to allow connection to your network via a switch or router. This provides access at network speeds and allows multiple users to access the storage. See the Drobo 5D Getting Started Guide for details. [3]
With these high-speed interfaces, the Drobo 5D can be connected flexibly based on your needs.
[1] http://www.drobo.com/downloads/products/0316-01-5D-DS.pdf
[2] http://www.drobo.com/downloads/start/doc/Drobo-5D-getting-started-en.pdf
[3] http://www.drobo.com/wp-content/uploads/Drobo-5D5Dt-getting-started-en.pdf
Summary
The Drobo 5D is a 5 bay direct attached storage device that offers abundant capacity options. With its 5 drive bays, the Drobo 5D can support up to 60TB of raw storage capacity when loaded with 5x 12TB hard drives. This high capacity makes the Drobo 5D well suited for creative professionals, small businesses, and home users looking for an expandable desktop storage solution.
While the maximum raw capacity is 60TB, the actual usable capacity will be lower due to things like formatting, file system overhead, and parity protection. Still, with the ability to populate the Drobo 5D with large high capacity hard drives, users can realize substantial usable capacity for storing and protecting large amounts of data.
Overall, the 5 bay Drobo 5D offers robust direct attached storage capacity of up to 60TB raw, making it a versatile storage solution for creative workflows and small business data protection needs.