Data Robotics DroboElite Test Drive Part Four
After another week of writing to the Data Robotics Drobo Elite near continuously and using it as a backup target and for production file shares, we decided it was time to bring some other platforms into the environment. The DroboElite is after all designed to be a SAN to support multiple host and OS types. Once again the DroboElite proved why it should be a strong contender for an SMB's SAN platform.
As you'll see from the below video things went smooth for all platforms.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
George Crump, Senior Analyst
Lab Report
Data Robotics is a client of Storage Switzerland
We were able to run our favorite Dummy File Generator from the two windows systems and execute a number of Linux backups with no issues. As a result we filled the DroboElite again. More on that later.
If you have been following our test drive you know that up till now we have been working only from the Macintosh platform. The new servers we brought into the test were a standalone Windows 2008 server and, via a virtual environment, a Ubuntu Server and a Windows Vista workstation. For the Windows 2008 server we simply downloaded the Windows version of the Drobo Dashboard and ran the install process. After starting the Drobo Dashboard it almost immediately found the DroboElite on our storage LAN. We didn't have to provide IP addresses or any other type of configuration information. It found the DroboElite and we were ready to start assigning volumes. That part of the process is identical as to how it was on the Macintosh platform which is ideal for a mixed environment. Total time from turning on the Windows 2008 server to writing data...10 minutes.
Most of the time we run the server version of Parallels for our primary virtualization product in the lab. For simplicity we used that in this test, although a VMware specific test is in the works. In Parallels we defined two VMs, a Window Vista workstation and a Ubuntu Linux server. In the Windows Vista case we decided to manually configure the iSCSI connection using the iSCSI initiator configuration panel that Microsoft provides. Let me be clear, this is NOT the way Data Robotics wants you configure volumes and I’m not sure why you would want to, the above approach is much more simple. However, I had a desire to make sure that it would work with the Microsoft iSCSI control panel. We supplied the IP address of the DroboElite and the configuration panel found all the volumes the DroboElite was broadcasting. Once we identify the volume ID of the volume we wanted to attach to the connection was made. We were able to format the volume with NTFS and we were ready to go. Again, I would normally use the Drobo Dashboard software but it was nice to know that this method works too.
Finally came Linux/Ubuntu. Data Robotics makes it perfectly clear that Linux support is in beta and while there is quite a bit available on the web to help with connecting a USB/Firewire Drobo to a Linux server there is not much for the iSCSI version. Fortunately the iSCSI configuration documentation for Linux is available and after cobbling through a couple of sites we were able to get the Ubuntu VM talking to the volume. While not as easy as the pre-loaded software on Windows and Macintosh, it is certainly not out of the question for a Linux administrator. With in about an hour or so we had the Ubuntu Linux Server attached to EXT3 volumes on the DroboElite and were writing various test jobs.
We are going to list the steps that we took to connect the DroboElite to Linux in another entry and video. As a point of clarification though I am not a Linux expert so there may be a better way to configure this. Our goal was to make sure we could get the volume mounted and tested. Which we did and it worked fine.
Both the Windows Vista VM and the Ubuntu Linux VM were attaching directly to their own iSCSI volumes. This was not a shared volume. I consider this configuration the harder of the two and the DroboElite passed the test.
With all these systems online we were able to begin stressing the DroboElite a little. With five systems writing a mix of small and large files continuously we did see a performance impact. Nothing that was noticeable at an application level but would register in a benchmark test. In fairness we were also stressing our network at that point so it bares much of the responsibility. That said don't expect the DroboElite to win a SPECmarks test in the near future. Of course Data Robotics does not position the unit for that anyway. Overall my expectation is that with 10-15 servers (VM or Physical) all accessing the box during the course of a normal business day performance should be very acceptable.
The other impact of all this testing going on was that the DroboElite filled up again. Ironically I only had 1TB drives available in the lab. Thus far we had filled the DroboElite with 2TB drives only. Data Robotics of course lists the ability to mix and match drives as one of their key features. Honestly up to this point the thought of doing so made me nervous. With our volumes very close to full we had no other option. We did what any other small business IT person would do. Use what you have. We plugged in the 1TB drive and within a few seconds it was online and most of the additional capacity was available to use. No down time, no degraded performance, no loss in data protection level.
Once again the DroboElite has exceeded our expectations. I thought the Windows configurations and especially the Linux connection was going to take most of the day. In both cases they went smoothly and we were done with in a couple of hours. Just like any other IT professional I like the pleasant surprise of having extra time on my hands.
This week we will be stress testing the DroboElite by having these systems read and write to their storage partitions nearly continuous.
- Multi-Platform
