Vsphere 4.1 and Drobo Elite

[shortkidd]

I have just received a Drobo Elite and I am in the process of setting it up. The one thing I would like to say that I am happy to see is there I can access the administration interface now over the network so I can modify my assigned luns when the unit is connected to vmware and not have to use the USB cable and reconnect the iscsi.

At this point that I have to admit I do not see a performance increase from unit to the next.

Has anyone measured the through put seen when using either unit? I would be interested to know other users experiences.

[BPBM]

I have been testing this arrangement for a few days now.  I must say that DROBO Elite should not be VMware certified.  Transfers can be cooking along at 50MB/sec then it will drop to 4MB/sec and not recover.  If you let the system rest for a minute or so, you can reinitiate the transfer and it'll be good for 30 seconds then drop to the 4MB/sec again.  When it drops, disk queue bounces between 90 and 0.  NIC traffic bounces between 5% and 0%.

There is an article

http://www.devtrends.com/index.php/using-the-drobopro-with-vmware-esx-and-esxi/

which echoes my experience.

I am at a loss on what to do with this DROBO Elite.  I certainly can't use it for our VMware + VEEAM environment.

I tried to talk to DROBO support but as soon as the DROBO tech heard the word "VMware" he got defensive, rude, and hostile.  He wouldn't even clarify DROBO's "VMware best practices" document.

VMware should revoke the implied compatibility.  Performance is not acceptable (4MB/sec usable, with ocasional bursts) even when it is working.  The VMware/DROBO iSCSI disconnects are unacceptable.  DROBO's recommendation on changing to a 14 sec timeout is no solution, either.

I think I'll use it to hold iso's, install packages, and other things that are replaceable.  Or, maybe make it a backup target.

I really hope DROBO can sort it out; this product has potential.

HTH

Victor

[legacyb4]

I have to say as well that I'm less than satisfied with the performance of the DroboElite.

While recent firmware updates (1.1.0) seem to have settled down the hardware a bit with the random timeout issues, overall performance leaves much to be desired.

I've been fiddling with various configurations to see if I could squeeze better performance out of the unit but the only conclusive result I've come up with so far is that a copying to a guest OS (residing on a VMFS volume) gives me no better than 18-15MB/sec while a guest OS connecting to an iSCSI volume will yield somewhere between 45-60MB/sec read/write throughput.

[ChuckNeville]

I have tested this for a while now. I have done everything the vendor has asked after several support calls. The Drobo devices are not ready for prime time in my opinion. I tried to use it for storage for lower use/priority VM's and ended up moving all to a spare HP All-In-One. It was not worth the hassle trying to figure out what was going on with the throughput.

[shortkidd]

Regretfully, I have been in the process of building out a new drobo elite for a couple of weeks now.

To copy a file from my drobo pro the elite has been painful to say the least. To copy a 1tb vmdk that is commected on gb iscsi and server level drives takes more than 12 hours.

Not only is drobo not ready for prime time its not suitable for any use other than a door stop.

Drobo has done a poor job from stem to stern on these products. I would not recommemd this product at all.

[Speedbmp]

I will agree the Drobo Pro, and Drobo Elite that i had where nothing but problems, i had a total of 4 of them, i was going to utilize them for VMware however i got Time out problems. it would make VM's stop working that i had on it. i used the Drobo/VMware best practice for them it was just BAD.

I was able to return them thankfully. it just made for my case to get a much better SAN four our systems. we went with a Compellent SAN and i have never looked back!

if you still have them and can't send them back i would utilize them for maybe some sort of backup to disk folder or something

Stephen

[shortkidd]

Stephen,

Which compellant components did you purchase. I would be interested to look at this product.

Vincent

[Speedbmp]

Vincent

well I'm not sure how big your data requirements are is, that is the one thing nice about their storage solution it can grow with ease.

I started with two controllers (in case one fails) everything is redundant, i started with 4.5tb of 450gb SAS 15k drives (16 disks) (1 enclosure) also redundant power supplies, cables etc.

the licenses i got where storage center core, dynamic capacity, data instant replay (snap shots), dynamic controllers, virtual ports.

i then needed more space i got a second enclosure another 4.5tb of storage (6 disks 1tb 7k SAS)

i then added for license fast track, and data progression.

what is nice most of the data stays on the 7k 1tb drives and that data is read only, it writes everything to the faster drives. very different from other vendors.

i have been very happy with is so far.

you should of seen when the tech came out and installed the extra enclosure, i had alarms going off all over the place (because he was pulling cables to add the storage to the system). and nothing came down. it was quite cool everybody was none the wiser what was going on.

go to there web site

http://www.compellent.com

Stephen