Zalman (http://www.zalman.com/eng/main.asp) is pretty well known for their computer accessories, particularly their CPU and GPU cooling products. Over the past few years they have expanded their line to include cases, power supplies, VGA cards, hard disk enclosures, and others.

Recently, Zalman released a 2.5” hard drive enclosure that brings a new wrinkle to the genre. The VE200 enclosure, in addition to providing the usual USB hard disk features, has the ability to act as a virtual CD/DVD drive.

What is the point of a virtual CD/DVD drive? Well, if you load .ISO files onto the drive in the enclosure, it can mount them and present them to a computer as if they are real CDs or DVDs. Imagine being able to have all your installation CDs/DVDs on one device and to use a small LCD display to pick and choose which one you want to use — pick an ISO, mount it as a CD or DVD, and boot the computer from it exactly as if it was in a physical CD/DVD drive. At the very least it greatly simplifies installing Operating Systems on devices like netbooks that have no Optical Disk Drive.

REQUIREMENTS

There are a few requirements in order to obtain a working VE200 setup:

1. The VE200 kit
2. A 2.5” SATA hard drive
3. A computer with a free USB2/3 port (Windows is OK; don’t know about Mac)

THE SYSTEM

This is what you get.

Opening the box reveals this:

So, without being too fancy, it was nicely packaged.

Here are the complete contents of the boxs:

From top left: the Quick Guide, VE200. a leatherette carrying case with a small package containing a tiny screwdriver and 4 screws. Bottom row: eSATA cable and USB A-miniB cable (but not such a ‘standard’ one as it might appear — more on that later). Although the Zalman web site seems to indicate that it comes with a CD, mine did not.

As noted in the requirements, a customer-provided 2.5″ SATA hard drive is required to complete the system. Pretty much any 2.5″ SATA drive will do. In other words, almost any modern laptop drive.

The connection ports for the VE200 are along the top of the unit:

From left to right: an eSATA connector, a small hole that contains a Reset button, a blue LED to indicate activity, a slot containing a switch to write protect/enable the drive, and a USB 2 miniB connector.

The USB connector is critical. The VE200 is completely USB powered. Although the Guide doesn’t mention it, I assume this means you need to be using a USB port that has battery charging capability. I don’t see how it could supply enough power otherwise.

I have not used the eSATA connector. I did plug it in once, but the unit did not power up. I presume they included eSATA in order to facilitate faster-than-USB file transfers. To be honest, I haven’t really found that to be an issue, and I can’t really see the usefulness of having to plug the unit in with both eSATA and USB in order to get it to work. Everything that follows is based entirely on using the USB port.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

The first step to getting the VE200 set up is to install the hard drive. To do this, the head containing the LCD display has to be separated from the case. Try resting the back of the unit on the tips of your fingers, (i.e. LCD display face up) and away from you. Now, put your thumbs on the LCD display and gently push the display away from you.

If that doesn’t seem to work, the head may be wedged into the case a bit too tightly. In that case, look at the diagram below. Notice that there are 2 plastic/rubber strips along the sides of the VE200.

Use the small screwdriver included with the kit to peel back the strip on one side and gently pry up the LCD head on that side to loosen it. Repeat the process on the other side. This should get the head far enough out of the case that you can pull it the rest of the way.

Here’s a look at the business side of the LCD display head.

To install the drive, simply connect the VE200 head’s SATA connector to its mate on the drive.

With the drive attached, simply slide the assembly into the case.

Once the drive and head are fully inserted into the case, complete the installation by using 2 of the supplied screws to lock the VE200′s head to the case. Note: the screws do not go into the drive, only into the head, as per the photo below. This photo also shows the Jog Switch. It is a vital part of the VE200, as we’ll see later.

CONFIGURING THE HARD DRIVE

Once the hard drive has been installed, the next step is to configure it. But first, some background.

The VE200 does not automatically configure the hard drive. This can lead to complications.

The VE200 can only use the first partition/volume on the drive, even if that partition/volume is one that’s hidden in Windows

Many people will likely want to use old laptop drives in VE200s. If a drive comes from a major laptop supplier such as Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. it will likely contain an OEM recovery partition/volume. These partitions/volumes are normally not visible in Windows Explorer. This means it would be impossible to copy ISO files to the OEM partition/volume, which is the only way the VE200 would see the ISO files.

To get around this problem, the hidden partition(s)/volume(s) must be deleted. I recommend simply deleting all partitions/volumes from the drive and starting afresh.

This creates another issue: Disk Management in Windows can’t normally delete OEM partitions/volumes because they are protected. There are a number of utilities, free and paid, that can do this, but Windows own DiskPart can do the job and it’s provided for free with Windows. I won’t go into how to use DiskPart here; there is plenty of info available on the web and DiskPart’s own built in Help is pretty useful as well.

To configure the drive, connect the VE200 to a Windows computer, using the USB cable provided with the VE200. Most USB A-miniB cables will not work; they will light up the LCD display, and it will look like it’s working, but the hard drive will not power up. Of all the USB A-miniB cables in my own stock, only 1 other would work. Most USB A-A extender cables cannot be used either. Be warned.

Once the VE200 is connected to the computer, clean out any existing partitions/volumes using your utility of choice.

Now that the drive has no partitions/volumes, it’s time to find out what firmware the VE200 has installed.

There are 2 ‘types’ of firmware for the VE200: NTFS, and FAT32/exFAT. It’s important to know which one a particular VE200 has installed because the hard drive must be formatted to match the firmware type. Note: it may be possible to flash an NTFS VE200 with FAT32/exFAT firmware, and vice-versa, but I wasn’t about to kill my VE200 trying to find out.

The Jog Switch is used to find out what version of firmware a VE200 has. With no partitions/volumes on the drive, the VE200 should show something like this on its LCD display:

The Job Switch has 3 positions: up, down, and in (or depressed). To get the version of firmware, depress the Jog Switch 4 times. Each depress will display a different screen.

The first depress will show the model of hard drive in the unit. For example:

The second depress should show the drive serial number:

The third depress will show some number, but I don’t know what it is (perhaps the drive’s firmware number?):

And finally, the fourth depress will show the VE200’s firmware info:

The important item on this screen is the ‘N’ at the very end. It indicates that the firmware is NTFS (FAT32/exFAT firmware has as ‘F’ at the end). BTW, as of this writing, this is the latest firmware release.

Next, create a new partition/volume on the drive. I recommend using the entire drive because the VE200 can only use the first partition. I won’t go into details on how to create a partition as there is tons of info available on the internet. The main things are to assign a drive letter to the partition/volume (so ISO files can be copied to it later), and to format the partition/volume to match the version of firmware installed in the VE200.

The final step in configuring the drive is to create a directory/folder named “_iso” at the root of the newly created partition. This is critical. All ISO files must reside in this _iso directory/folder or the VE200 will NOT be able to mount them as virtual CDs or DVDs.

With the “_iso” directory/folder created, the configuration of the drive is complete.

Using the VE200

As a first test, copy an .ISO file to the _iso directory/folder. The ISO needs to be a mountable image file. A Windows 7 or XP installation DVD ISO makes a good test case.

Once the file is copied, either eject the VE200 (just like any other USB external drive) and disconnect and reconnect it, or use a paperclip to press the Reset Button on the top of the VE200. After the unit reboots it should show the name of the ISO file that was copied to it. I used a Windows XP ISO and it looks like this:

Notice the second icon from the left in the top row; the one that looks like a tire. It indicates that the ISO is mounted. Depressing the Jog Switch mounts and unmounts ISO files. So, depressing it once shows this:

Moving the Jog Switch down once will give the full name of the ISO file:

At this point I recommend trying to boot from the VE200. Make sure the VE200 shows that your ISO file is mounted, then reboot your PC and use its boot menu to select the ZMVE Virtual CDRom as the boot device. You should get the normal bootup for your computer; the same as you would get if you booted from a physical CD/DVD.

After verifying that the VE200 does boot correctly, it’s use can be expanded. For one thing, it supports folders, very much like Windows Explorer.

To go into a folder depress the Jog Switch.

Pushing the Jog Switch up repeatedly will eventually take you to the Level Up screen:

Depressing the Jog Switch at this screen will move the VE200 up to the parent directory/folder.

It’s possible to create nested layers of directories/folders. I created a 4-deep stack without issue.

I have not used the eSATA port.

PROS

• Inexpensive (around $50US). This might seem a little high for an external enclosure, but the virtual drive capability puts it in another class in my opinion.
• Small, lightweight.
• The kit is quite complete, even including a carrying case and screwdriver.
• Simple to use, once the initial hurdles are overcome.
• A very handy device that can take the place of many single-purpose bootable flash drives, CDs, and DVDs.
• The display provides some nice information, such as the hard drive temperature. The icons are logical, well-placed, and pretty intuitive to understand, at least to a Windows user.

CONS

• Extremely poor documentation. If only the documentation matched the physical completeness of the kit.
• Initial configuration is manual, and the user is left to fend for themselves, particularly with regard to getting the hard drive configured properly.
• The Jog Switch can be difficult to use, especially trying to find the correct position so it can be depressed. Separate buttons would have been better, but likely would have added to the cost.
• Cannot use commonly available USB A-miniB cables.
• The supplied USB cable is too short.
• The LCD display is small. It works, but a little larger would have been better.
• Not every ISO can be used. I found that the Windows Home Server 2011 Client Restore Disk ISO could not be used because the VE200 would reset itself part way through the Restore Wizard. I suspect this is because the wizard reinitialized all of the USB ports as part of its normal process. On the other hand, Windows XP ran without problems.

CONCERNS

Probably my biggest concern about the VE200 is the Jog Switch. This is an inexpensive device, and the Jog Switch gets used so much that I’m concerned that it might not last too long. That would essentially make the VE200 a paperweight. Of course, it’s always possible to just get another one, and it should even be possible to transfer the hard drive from a dead VE200 to a new one.

SUMMARY

The VE200 is a pretty amazing device. It accomplishes its main goal very well. Keeping the Cons & Concerns in mind, I would recommend it to anyone who has a working knowledge of Windows; in other words, Power Users. Hopefully, this review/tutorial can overcome most of the lack of documentation and get people up and running faster.

I am now in the midst of getting rid of most of the mostly single-purpose, bootable USB Flash drives that I use to do installations. I am copying ISO files for OS installs, MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Production Premium, LightRoom, SpinRite, CloneZilla, and many others, to the VE200.

I will now have a single place where I can find all these images, and from which I can install any of them. There will be no more inserting and removing of a pile of USB Flash Drives, trying to find the one that contains a particular install image. USB Flash Drives are certainly convenient, and they’re small, but their size also makes it hard to label them and keep them organized. They are also easily lost. The VE200 nicely addresses both of these issues.

Also gone will be the issue of fighting a specific USB Flash Drive to make it bootable, only to find that this particular model of flash drive can’t be made bootable.

SUMMARY

I’m giving the VE200 4 out of 5 stars. The terrible documentation, the fact that the VE200 doesn’t auto-configure the drive, and concerns over the Jog Switch mainly contributed to it not getting a higher rating. However, it’s overall usefulness prevented it from getting a lower score.

jvk

Leveraging techniques learned from a decade of experience in large data centers across the globe, DataCore™ DriveHarmony maximizes the value home users get from their hard disk drives. The software integrates into the familiar WHS dashboard with a simple, easy-to-use control panel. From there, users can combine one or more physical disks of variable sizes and types into one “Virtual Big Disk” pool. When this virtual drive is created, it is automatically initialized, formatted, assigned a drive letter, and selectively mirrored for data protection. The virtual drive is then ready for use by any application running on the WHS 2011 operating system.

Let’s install it and test it out.

It’s a standard install file that you will copy to the server and execute from the server.  It will require a restart before you can use it.  When your install and restart are done you will find the add-in loaded in the WHS 2011 Dashboard.

One thing I didn’t like in this beta is the fact that it’s not listed in the add-in tab of the dashboard.  I don’t know why that bothers me but I would like to see it in there as being “official.”

My test server is a hodge podge collection of drives.  Take a look.

I’m all set to start choosing drives for protection.  So I think.

Back to the Add-In choose “Create Protected Drive.”

A box will pop up with a list of hard drives for you to select for the protected drive.

Yet, there are no drives.  DriveHarmony would not use the drives I had already loaded into the server and assigned drive letters to.  I had to load Disk Management and delete the volume on each drive.  Then back to the Add-In.

Now they show up.  Remember this is virtually a “mirror” so you want to create drives of like sizes otherwise the mirror will be the size of the smallest drive.

When you click Create Drive the add-in will take over and create the protected drive out of the two you selected.

This may take a while.  It took 5 to 6 hours for mine to complete but the good news is the new drive is useable after only a short time.  Notice the size and the percentage of drive space that is initialized.

I wouldn’t expect to do much during this process although I didn’t test any streaming or other operations.  Here is why.

Memory usage was sky high.  This is a beta so keep that in mind.

Once it’s complete the add-in screen will not look much different.

One good thing I noticed is I was able to use the WHS 2011 move folder wizard to the newly protected drive.

One bad thing I noticed is that memory usage of the add-in is still very high in a static state.

Yet another good thing about this add-in is the ability to extend the drive.  You can add another like size or even unlike size, and add it to the protected drive.  That’s a very good thing for future growth.  I know it’s a beta but the memory usage seems a tad high.

Speed testing DriveHarmony

Does it perform?   I need a comparable so here is my OS Drive.

It’s two, 250Gig hard drives which are the Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9250315AS 250GB 5400 RPM 2.5″ SATA 3.0Gbps drives.

Mirrored with Icy Dock MB982SPR-2S, plugged into a Gigabyte P55-USB3 motherboard, Jmicron port

Single drive tests

Here is a 2TB Seagate Drive just for a baseline.

ST3200542AS, 5900 RPM

DataCore DriveHarmony protected drive.

Here is the DriveHarmony setup.

One 500Gig Western Digital Blue WD500AAKS, SATA 3, 7200RPM

One 500Gig Seagate ST3500418AS, SATA 3, 7200 RPM

Both plugged into a Gigabyte P55-USB3 board, Intel ports.  I didn’t load the add-in with 7200 RPM drives on purpose.  That’s just what I had handy.  Obviously they are faster.

Whoa.  What’s going on with the write speeds and how did it achieve such high read rates?  These are SSD results not 7200 RPM drive results.

I had to run it twice since it looked erratic.  It got faster.

3rd run it got even faster.  Time to ask DataCore what’s going on.  Carlos, who we interviewed in episode 132, has a response to what might be going on.

The benchmark appears to be sequential IOs of various transfer sizes. Running this kind of test against a single drive produces pretty consistent results (diagram #25).  In comparison, the DriveHarmony drive pool’s high read IO rate is due to read-ahead caching that detects read patterns and pre-fetches blocks.  For writes it depends on how busy the cache is as well as what disk you are writing to (also bear in mind that you’re performing 2 write operations on a protected drive before acknowledgement is sent back to the application). The other thing we noticed is that in #25 (physical disk) the numbers for read/write IOs are similar for all transfer sizes while in #26 the numbers highly vary – without knowledge about how the test tool works we can’t comment on this difference.

This explains it.  I wonder if the write speeds would be better if you were just writing a folder to it and not hitting it with so many read operations?  How well will it perform with streaming?  My guess is this is going to be just fine for enthusiasts.  Remember, this is a beta too.  Carlos also reminded me of this.

As I alluded to previously, the final version of the product will use an updated I/O driver so any benchmarks conducted with the beta driver will not be indicative of the final performance characteristics (particularly for write operations).

So what do you think of the Add-in?  I think if they can clean this up a little bit it has real merit not just as a replacement for Drive Extender but as a means to manage RAID on your server.  The caching mechanism alone seems to be worth the install.

Hit the forums for more discussion.  Here is the DriveHarmony topic.

Update:  See the comments section for a reply from Datacore.  Feel free to leave your thoughts here or in the forums post above.

Let me take a second to steal some text from their website to tell you about the company itself.

Monsoon Multimedia was founded in 2004 by a team of digital video pioneers and serial entrepreneurs with a track record of launching successful startup companies in the growing digital video space. In 1996, the founders of Monsoon Multimedia founded Dazzle, where they developed the world’s first affordable PC hardware and software products to compress video based on MPEG standards. In 2000, they founded Emuzed, where they pioneered the convergence of PCs and mobile phones, with TVs and digital video.

Now, with digital video exploding and technologies converging, Monsoon’s products and technologies sit at the center between TV, Mobile, home WiFi, Internet Video and the wide array of TV and video service consumers have coming into their homes. Our products let consumers watch TV, Internet and on-demand video on their TVs, PCs and mobile phones; in ways they never imagined possible.

One word that you will constantly see when reading about the Vulkano product line is, “Sling.”  I’m not sure if it’s an honor to be lumped in with Sling or if it’s a slander to these guys but I believe they are trying to differentiate themselves from the word by making a slight different, if not better, product.

Now that I’ve said the “S” word you now get the idea of what the product line is attempting to do.  Watch live TV from your cable or satellite provider on multiple platforms, schedule recordings from those platforms and devices, and more.

Here is where it can get confusing.  Wading through the details of the six products they offer.  I wish the website had a table of features for each unit.  They do have a link to a “which is best for me” page but it still left me a little unsatisfied.  Here it is in it’s entirety.

The only difference is storage & DVR!

If you plan on recording hundreds of hours favorite TV programs and downloading movies from the Internet to play back on your TV, then the Vulkano Deluxe Pro is the best product for you. It comes bundled with a 500GB external hard disk drive that lets you record around 900, 90 minute TV shows and movies giving you the ultimate DVR experience.

If you feel you will only record 30 or so 90 minute TV and movie recordings, then the Vulkano Deluxe is perfect with its 16GB of Flash memory.

If your just looking for a great deal on some terrific technology that lets you watch TV on your mobile, or stream stored movies, photos music and YouTube to your big screen TV, then purchase the Vulkano Platinum.

Here’s a hint; buy the Vulkano Deluxe Pro, once you experience DVR, you will record everything!

Regardless of that, I’m reviewing the Flow.  The Vulkano Flow is a TV Anywhere box.  A placeshifter.  It has clients for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.  You can view and record on the PC and Mac and it has wireless N built in as well as Ethernet.  It’s crazily inexpensive at $99 and I’ve seen it at Amazon for $88.  The mobile clients are also half the cost of what the “S” word folks charge for theirs.   Don’t forget that.  If you just want to watch on the PC or Mac you are golden as the download is free.  Otherwise, be ready to pay $12.99 for a client.

I want to see that crazy long list of technical specs

Video

• Decoders: H.263(Sorenson), H.264 BP, H.264 MP, H.264 EP, H.264 HP, AVS, VP6, M-JPEG, MPEG-2 MP@HL, MPEG-4 ASP, WMV7/8, WMV9/VC-1
• Encoders: MPEG-4 ASP, H.264 BP, H.264 MP, M-JPEG

Still Image

• Decoder: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP

Audio

• Decoder: MP3, WMA8, WMA9, WMA10 Pro, AAC LC, HE-AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, G.711, G.726, G.729AB
• Encoder: WMA8, MP3, AAC LC, G.711, G.726, G.729AB

Analog Video Inputs

• YPrPb (up to 1080i) or
• S-Video + Composite (NTSC/PAL)
• Macrovision x support
• 3 10-bit DACs @ x MHz

Network Connectivity

• 1 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet port
• MII/RGMII
• WiFi 802.11n

Local connectivity

• 1 USB 2.0 port

Unboxed

The Box

Explain the ports please!

The Flow is meant to sit between the Set Top Box (STB) and the TV.  If you are lucky, your STB may have dual output ports and you can leave your setup the way you have it now and connect the extra outputs to the Flow’s inputs.  Notice, no HDMI.  Can you guess why?  Analog has no DRM or HDCP, hint hint.

It supports up to 1080i and will down convert to 720×480 for the client.  No HDMI input but some of their boxes do have HDMI out.

I know what else your thinking.  Does it work with Media Center?  Can I finally record satellite content with my Media Center?  Answer is…..No!  Their explanation?  The Vulcano has an Electronic Program Guide so you don’t Media Center.  See the conclusion of this review for more thoughts on Media Center.

Hook it up and download a client to your PC or Mac in order to set it up.  The PC Software/Player is 110 Meg!  When I hooked up mine and plugged in power the status light was red for about 10 or so seconds, flashed red for a few more and then went green.  Looks like a good start.

The obligatory setup screens.

Did this thing just install MSSOAP ?  Didn’t that get left behind years ago for .Net?  I wasn’t fast enough to capture the screen but I swear it did.

Asks you to create a password

Firmware update

Wireless Setup which I skipped in order to use Ethernet.

Choose your video input.  Composite or Component.

Advanced Button was impressive.  Every setup screen is in here.

I imagine this is the part that could go wrong for some folks.  STB’s and IR.  It’s a pain but once you get it working you should be good to go.  The setup will coach you through all channel changing and whether you change channels by hitting 1, then enter, or 001, enter, 01, enter, etc.  It covers it.  Luckily, my setup was easy and I used the default settings throughout.

Multiple digit channel changes worked without tweaking the speed slider.

It tried to configure UPNP ports and failed.  Probably due to my DIR-655 router which is flakey with UPNP at times.

Rebooted the router and still not working.  Skipping.

Launch the player please!

The on screen remote was not a cheesy set of buttons but rather the actual graphical representation of the remote that came with my box.

Changing channels works great with it.

Watching and Recording

This thing is great for watching satellite content on your PC but a DVR it is not!  You can record what you are watching but don’t expect it to do ANYTHING beyond that.  I started watching Space Cowboys and hit record but the EPG doesn’t indicate it’s recording.  It was recording but just not showing that in the EPG.  I guess it doesn’t matter since you can’t record via the EPG like you would normally do with a DVR.  The other thing I couldn’t get it to do was bring up my recordings that were on the Dish Network DVR.  It would be nice to be able to watch those shows via the player.  If there is a way to do this I’ll update the review.

Recording screen shot.

Get out of the house and watch some TV!

Like I said earlier there is a mobile client for almost every mobile device out there.  If there isn’t Monsoon is probably working on one.  WP7, ahem.  I tested Android and the iPad.  The Android app worked over 3G but I couldn’t get it to work via Wi-Fi.  Odd, but not a big deal at home.  What if I’m travelling and hooked up to Wi-Fi?  That I didn’t test but read in a forum that it didn’t work.  Streamed TV to my HTC Incredible looked very good and I was able to change channels easily.  Again, it would be nice to see my DVR’d content via Android.

The iPad was also enjoyable but had it’s quirks.

As you can see by the screen shots there are moments of haziness( or digitization) but when the app has time to run it clears up pretty good.  The only gripe I had with it was during remote control actions.  When you press a button on the remote it would drop the stream and re-buffer.  I would recommend using the app’s EPG and not trying to navigate the STB’s guide.  That’s why the Flow gives you a guide after all.

Android Screens

Note to Monsoon Multimedia.  Get this thing working with Media Center and you will sell a lot more of them.  If I could use the Flow to pipe satellite content into Media Center I would be ecstatic!  The Flow never gave me any issues with IR, needing reboots,  or dealing with the STB.  It would be a great option for Media Center enthusiasts.   Monsoon, just make a backdoor setting that would somehow make it work with MC and let us bloggers publish the workarounds.  You will sell boxes!

The only other thing I can think of for Media Center fans is to upgrade beyond the Flow and get the DVR version.  Record all the shows you want and put them in a directory accessible by Media Center.  The only other issue would be tagging the show properly and getting it to show up under Recorded TV.  There are many more questions for this type of setup so maybe I can convince Monsoon to send me the rest of their product portfolio.

Conclusion

I’ve seen the flow available for as little as $88.  Today on Amazon it’s at $94.95 but not shipped from Amazon.  It’s still a great price for the function it provides.  Just don’t forget that mobile clients will also add to the cost if you want to view on Android or iOS.  The PC and Mac clients are free though.  I thought it was easy to setup and get running but I can see someone having trouble with an oddball STB or if not familiar with the cabling requirements.  I don’t know if I would recommend using wireless to stream from the Vulcano but it has it if you need it.  For the price it’s a great way to get live TV where ever you want it!

Vulkano Flow 010410VF Mobile Accessory for TV Anywhere $94.95 on Amazon.com

Let’s take a look at the drive.

Here are the obligatory stats on the drive from plextor.com

Model
PX-128M2S

Capacity
128 GB

Sequential Read (MB/S)
420

Sequential Write (MB/S)
210

Sequential Read (IOPS 4K)
15,000
Sequential Write (IOPS 4K)
9000
General Specification

Buffer
128MB DDR3 Cache

Power Consumption (Typical)
0.25W (Idle); 0.75W (Active)

Temperature (Operating)
32 ºF to 158 ºF (0 ºC to 70 ºC)

Temperature (Non-operating)
-40ºF to 185 ºF (-40 ºC to 85 ºC)

Shock
1,500G/0.5 ms

Vibration (Operating)
7~800Hz, 2.17G (RMS)

MTBF
1.5 million hour

Warranty
3 year

Compatibility

Operating System
Microsoft Windows Family
Linux
Mac OS

Command Set

Supports TRIM, SMART, NCQ, ATA/ATAPI-8

Data Encryption

Supported

SATA Interface

SATA Revision 3.0 compliant, supports SATA 6/3/1.5 Gb/s

Firmware Upgrade
Supported

Form Factor and Connectors

Form Factor
2.5-inch

Power Connector

15-pin SATA connector for DC 5V input

Data Connector
7-pin SATA connector

Dimensions and Weight

Dimensions (W x H x D)

2.75 x 0.3 x 4.0 inch

Weight

1.94 ~ 3.53 oz

Test Platform

http://homeservershow.com/budget-core-i7-pc-build.html

Installed the SSD drive to a SATA port on the motherboard.  It’s the ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 which only has 3Gb/s SATA ports so I won’t see the true performance of the drive but again, this is a real world test for those of us who don’t have SATA III ports.

Baseline

To show you exactly how the system performs I’ll do a test with a WD 640GB Black series.  Notices the speeds around 100MB/Sec.

HD Tune peaks at 117MB/Sec on the WD Black drive.

Same Tests / Plextor 128 SSD

Here are the benchmarks for the Plextor.

Average transfer rate right at 200MB/second, about double the average of the spindle drive.

The ATTO bench showed the same performance.

If you still have the older SATA chipset on your system I expect you will see the same results.  Double the performance of most spindle drives.

How can I get more speed at with a minimum investment?

I’m not trying to be cheap but I was curious as to what the performance gain would be on the cheapest 6Gb/s adapter I could find.  Enter the  HighPoint  PCIExpress Dual Port SATA 6Gb/s adapter for $25.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072&Tpk=N82E16816115072

This adapter is controversial in many forums due to it’s speed performance but  I’ve installed it in a x16 PCIE slot that is 2.0 to hopefully get the best performance possible out of it.

Will this card speed up benchmarks?

Average rate of 263 MB/Sec compared to 200MB/Sec on the motherboard port.

ATTO Benchmarking shows a dramatic difference.  The write speeds are about the same as how it performed on the motherboard but the reads are much higher.  Nearly 400.

The Plextor easily maxes out the SATA II interface and If you are not ready to jump into a new motherboard it looks like a minimal investment will certainly increase system performance when using the SSD.  It also does well in speed tests with higher end SATA III hardware behind it coming in just below it’s advertised read and write rates*.  It also comes with a copy of Acronis True Image in order to help facilitate the move from an older drive to the Plextor.  Solid value, good performance, and an easy transition, makes the Plextor a great deal at $279.

This Plextor series is available in sizes of 64, 128, and 256GB.

At newegg.com – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249010&cm_re=Plextor_ssd-_-20-249-010-_-Product

*Source – Storagereview.com

Audio Station 2 utilizes AJAX technology to bring you an innovative and enjoyable listening experience. Organize music into playlists, browse your music library, and stream over the Internet via a web browser. You can also stream music from iPod^®, Internet radio, and other UPnP/DLNA media servers.

Audiophiles who are passionate for digital sound quality can easily break free from the limitations of USB speakers by bridging a supported USB audio adapter between the Synology DiskStation and Hi-Fi speakers. The optional Synology Remote allows you to enjoy music and switch between songs without having to be near your computer.

Without installing additional media player software, you can conveniently play music on Audio Station 2 using the compact music player. Play and listen to music simultaneously from a web browser (streaming mode), USB speakers (USB mode) or via a media renderer. Streaming mode supports playing music in MP3 or M4A format, and internet radios in MP3 format.

The music player displays detailed information on the current song, including the song’s title, album, artist, and duration. Insert an album picture in the music folder to display it as the music plays. The queue panel beneath the music player shows the current playlist. Jump from music streaming mode to USB mode or media renderer with a click. Play music simultaneously in all three modes is possible. The shuffle button and the repeat button give you greater flexibility to your listening experience.

Here is a small screencast showing the Audio Station in action.  I’ll demo music from the Diskstation, and Shoutcast as well as streaming music from my DLNA compliant Windows Home Server.  You will also see the Android app in action.

Audio Station is very simple to use and it plays to almost anything that can load a web browser.  It was nice to be able to fire up my iPad and use the free app to stream music anywhere in the house.  Add Android and the ability to stream your music away from the house over 3G and you have a very powerful combination of storage and streaming.

I’ve got two, 2TB drives in the DS211+.  I want to replace both of these drives with smaller drives without losing any data in the process.  The manual clearly states that if you lose/remove a drive you must replace it with a like size or larger drive.  If you don’t it will not give you a chance of rebuilding the mirror.  Even if you are using Synology’s SHR RAID with unlike drives.  Correct me if I’m wrong but I found it out first hand as well.

Here is how it started.  Synology Hybrid RAID with two 2TB drives.

Lets yanks a drive.

You can see in this screen shot that it’s not happy.  It also started to beep annoyingly to indicate it’s degraded state.  You can turn that beep off in this screen but it’s nice to know it will alert you if there is ever a problem.  There are also options to be notified via email and SMS.

In that first screen shot you can see it is requesting that I insert a new drive that is the same size or larger than the original.  I highly doubt that my scenario is recommended and I’m not sure why anyone would want to downsize the storage capacity in the unit but this should test the units ability to recover.  The goal is to insert a 1.5TB drive and recreate the volume and then remove the remaining 2TB drive and do the same.

I’m choosing the Create button in Storage Management.

SHR as I’ve done with the original 2TB volume.  Choose the new 1.5TB Disk 2 (shows up as 1.36 TB) and finish it up.

My data is still on the 2TB drive that is remaining.  I’ll copy the data from the 2TB drive to the 1.5TB drive.  Instead of an actual copy I’m going to Edit the share and change it’s location.  This is a nice feature and one I didn’t count on during my scenario.

Share move in process.

Power off, pull the remaining 2GB drive out. Insert another 1.5TB drive and add the drive via Storage Manager.

Two happy 1.5TB hard drives configured in RAID.  I took this last screen shot after several days of use, backups, and reviewing.  I’ve not had a problem with volume at all.

I think this test was above and beyond a normal review of redundancy but it was nice to see that the unit is flexible enough to do something like this.  I’m not sure it will ever apply to the real world but I can see situations where you would have two 1TB drives in your Diskstation and you want to upgrade up to two 2TB drives.  It would be a little easier in this case because if you pull a 1TB drive and insert a 2TB in it’s place the RAID would rebuild without having to do share move process explained above.  As always, this is a “proceed at your own risk” situation.  I did it in a test environment with nothing to lose.

In this article I’ll be showing you the installation process of the box.  It’s fairly straightforward and quick but does have a lot of screens.  I’m not a huge fan of screen-shot posts but they can serve some good in case you are wondering about the process or have a DS211+ and want to reference another install.  I’ll be referring to the DS211+ as “the box,” “DiskStation,” or by it’s model name of DS211+.

The process starts with the enclosed DVD.  I’ll assume you can find a nice spot for the DS211+, install some drives, and hook power and the network to it.

Finding the Diskstation.  Next is to highlight the one you are installing and click Connect or Install.

Browse to the installation disk in order to choose the .pat file that will load up and initialize your DS211.  I’ll do the Complete Setup. (This was not in the manual by the way)

These screens are very straightforward.  Choose a name for your box, set the password, choose your network setup, and set the time.

Setup will now walk you through the process of formatting the drives and installing the DSM software to the box.  It all happens in this one screen so it’s pretty easy.

Then hit connect in the assistant to open a webpage for the Diskstation.  Bookmark this page and you are set.

Synology has made it very easy to get the system setup.  If I had encountered anything odd in these steps I might be a little leery about the future experience with the Diskstation.  It was a rock solid start though.  We are not done by any means though.  We still have to choose how we will work with the hard drives and more fun options like photo sharing, music sharing, and more.  Stay tuned  to this page for all DS211+ posts.

Super Router, the foundation

INTRODUCTION

Over the years I have used many different routers, Belkin, Linksys, Netgear, D-Link and others. I have even “hacked” one of them with a different firmware like Tomato, but all of them seemed lacking in some way or another.

The problem really hit home when the kids started using the computer more and we expanded our two computer home to four computers, one for every member of the family. To make matters worse, our house became the “play” house with the kids having friends over nearly everyday. On weekends, the Xbox and the kid’s computer were used nearly non-stop playing games and watching Netflix, Hulu and YouTube and talking with remote friends on Skype. This additional use brought some problems:

• stuttering Xbox FPS games when a computer was using Hulu, Netflix or YouTube,
• kids going to inappropriate websites, and
• kids sucking up to much bandwidth causing VOIP issues.

At the same time, we were switching from DSL to cable internet.  So, I had a bright idea, why not run both for a while.  With that in mind and looking for something a little better than the $90 routers found on Newegg,  I bought a dual WAN Netgear router for about  $350.   This router allowed me to setup Xbox traffic to be routed through the DSL connection and everything else through the cable connection. This worked great and stopped the stuttering problem with Xbox FPS games.

One problem with this setup: COST! Keeping two internet connections at home just so Call of Duty plays without stuttering was not a long term option. Heck, it wasn’t good short term solution as it still didn’t do much to solve the inappropriate websites.  However, after spending $350 on this thing, there was no way I was going to stop using it and it did a fairly good job reducing the FPS stuttering and VOIP issues even after we dropped DSL.  Under heavy load, it still had issues from time to time and it had limited web filtering capabilities; but at this point I was going to use it until it died.

Like an auto mechanic who can’t stop working on his car, and which never seems to work 100% either, I was moving some network cables for no memorable reason and touched the router. A HUGE released of static electricity hit me.  My first thought was, well lets leave that out.  Not only did I kill the router, but also took out two 8 port gigabyte switches.  The entire network was down.  It took less than a minute before I could hear the footsteps coming running down the stairs, “Dad the internet is down, how long before you have it fixed?” Give me a second to grief here, will yea?!  Pulling out an old Tomato hack router and a 16 port 10/100 switch from “storage” got us back online, and bought me some time to consider the next move.

So now what to do. Spend another $350 and get the same router, spend less and load DDWRT or Tomato, spend more and hope it is worth the cost? None of these sounded like good options.

DECISION TIME

Like many geeks, I had plenty of old PC parts lying around and had searched the internet looking for some unusual ideas for how to use them.  One idea I came across many times was using it to run a software based router.  This idea never really appealed to me as my first thought was “how safe can a software firewall be run from a PC”, an old one at that?”.  Then when my Dual WAN Netgear router died, I decided why not give it a try, what could it hurt?  After all, isn’t even a normal router from Newegg or Best Buy just a piece of hardware running some kind of software developed by the manufacture?  Also, the hardware these “pre-made” routers run on is pretty weak, even when compared to my old pile of junk PC hardware.

So, the search took me to three main candidates:

• pfSense (www.pfsense.org)
• Untangle (www.untangle.com)
• Smoothwall (www.smoothwall.org)

There are others, many of which are very good, but I was already feeling overwhelmed and wanted to keep the list small.  After giving each a brief try, actually just the install process, I decided on pfSense.  To me it seemed like the best firewall/router solution of the three.  However, I do love Untangle and in a future post, I will cover adding it to pfSense to complete the Super Router build.  For this post, let’s just cover the install process for pfSense.

pfSense Hardware considerations

pfSense can run on some really low powered hardware.  As you can see below, the minimum requirements are crazy low for PC standards.

While these minimum specs are fine for testing, for long term use you need to give it a bit more thought.  Since you will most likely want to run some additional packages, and pfSense has some nice ones, you will want something a little stronger. An Atom processor might sound perfect for this build, but that comes with some trade-offs as well. If you plan to run a processor demanding package such as SNORT (IDS/IPS protection), your Atom chip may struggle under a fast connection and heavy load.  Also, as we will cover in a future post, if you plan to go virtual with the Super Router build (which I HIGHLY suggest), you will need the appropriate hardware.

In addition to the minimum hardware mentioned above, you will need two network connections for this test system, one to your internet modem and the other to your network switch or hub.  You will also need a CD drive to load the software or run it from the LIVE CD and a small hard drive (20gig should be fine) if you want a more permanent install which I highly recommend.  My initial build used some old Netgear 10/100 network cards which worked fine.  Again, if you plan to eventually go virtual, that build will need a minimum of 3 network cards (3rd one for management of the virtual server) and a larger hard drive.   You should also consider going with better network cards, like the Intel 10/100/1000 cards.

INSTALLATION

The first thing you need to do is download the software from www.pfsense.org (go with the pfSense-1.2.3-RELEASE-LiveCD-Installer version) and burn it to a CD. You can run the software straight from the CD or use it to install to a hard drive. The downloaded file will contain the ISO image inside of a .gz compressed file, so use your favorite program to pull this out (try 7-Zip if you don’t have something already).  There is a new version coming which will have a number of very nice updates and additions.  This new version was just released as a Release Candidate and is considered fairly stable.  As with all pre-release, consider carefully if you want to run this in a production environment.

Now that you have downloaded and burned the ISO to a CD, we are ready for booting up the system. Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD and you should see the screen below once the software is loaded.  Chose option #1 to get the install process started. At this point, all we are doing is installing into ram. An option to install to the hard drive will come later.

Two things to note on this screen. First the system should have found your to network interfaces. Second, chose “n” to indicate you don’t want to set up a VLAN. pfSense is capable of running a VLAN, but that is not a topic of this post.

OK, here is where we assign our interfaces. First is to the LAN side. If your network interfaces are already plugged into your switch and modem, you can try the auto-detection. If this doesn’t work or you haven’t made the connections yet, you will need to assign either re0 or re1 to the LAN and then the other to the WAN. While it is helpful if you get these correct, it’s not the end of the world if you get it wrong.

In the screen below, you can see what happened when I tried the auto-detect without having them connected to anything. Note the “No link-up detected” message. No problem, just manually assign the interfaces. I assigned re0 to the LAN and re1 to the WAN.

While this article is not going to cover this in detail, you will notice after assigning a LAN and WAN interface, you are asked if you want to assign an Optional 1 interface. What’s happening here is that you are not limited to just the LAN and WAN interfaces. I have used the Optional 1 interface to create a unsecured guest wireless connection in the past.

After assigning the interfaces, you are now actually up and running. The system auto assigned 192.168.1.1 to the router (ie, LAN) and the WAN side will get an address from your ISP or you can assign it if you don’t have a DHCP connection to your ISP.

Ok, now let’s install the OS to the hard drive. Chose option #99. You will see a few install screens after this, just chose the default option each time.

When you get to this screen, chose the Quick/Easy Install option. You will then be asked if your are sure and that the process will erase all data on the hard drive.

Here you need to chose what type of processor you plan to use. Single core or multi core. After you chose this option, the system will reboot and you will come back to the menu screen shown couple of images above.

Time to long into the router from your web browser and complete the install. From now on, almost all of the admin will be performed from a browser. In your browser, type 192.168.1.1 into the address bar and you should be presented a logon screen.  The initial user name is “admin” and the initial password is “pfsense”.  After entering those credentials, you should see the screen show below.

The next screen you will be presented with is where you name your router and provide some other details. After you name your router, you can skip the rest of the data for now if you don’t know your DNS server address.

Chose your timezone and a time server.

Now we get to set up our WAN connection (connection to our ISP). Many of these settings are specific to your ISP connection.

LAN setup is even easier. Unless you have some special needs, no changes are needed on this screen.

Now setup the password you will use for future web admin logins.

After you re-log into the server, you will be presented with the System Overview screen. If you set everything up correctly, the router should have made the connection to your ISP.

You are done with the basic setup. But before we end Part 1 of this post, lets check two things:

Go to the Status menu and chose Interfaces. Check and make sure the router got an address from your ISP, if it uses DHCP and that the Status is UP.

Next go to the Services menu and chose DHCP server. If you want the router to issue IP addresses to your local network, you will need to set that up here.

That’s it, you should be up and running with a basic install of pfSense. This will be the foundation of our Super router. In a future post, we will continue the pfSense build with some additional setup options and finalize the Super router build  by adding  Untangle into the mix. Combining these two products into one incredibly powerful router, aka SUPER ROUTER!

BRIEF Q&A

• So you first thought may be, “why even bother with this, isn’t my Linksys router good enough?”.
  • That Linksys router may be good enough for you and this project isn’t for everyone.  There are also some downsides to building your own router (can be more complicated, may use more electricity and you may be perfectly happy with your current router), but if you already have some old hardware lying around, why not give it a try?  Once you do and see all the options available and then take a look at a few logs to see what the system is blocking, you will be amazed.
  • Another reason I love running a software router, is virus protection at the router level.  While every computer in the house has virus protection, having it at the router adds another layer of protection.
  • I also love all the real-time reporting.  I can see what computer or device is using what amount of bandwidth at any given moment.
• Why did you chose pfSense as the router and Untangle as the UTM? Why not just use one of these two?
  • Either of these software routers would be an excellent choice and if you already have a good router you are happy with, you may want to try Untangle in bridge mode as a first step.  We will go over this in more detail in a future post, but briefly this means the Untangle system will sit between your current router and the rest of your network.  This will allow you to continue to use your current setup, but add Untangle’s excellent filtering capabilities.  Since my router had died, I needed a new one.  Personally, I liked pfSenese’s real time reporting, Traffic Shaping, UPNP feature and free “app store” (referred to as Packages in pfSense) better than Untangle.  However, as mentioned before, I love Untangle’s filtering abilities and therefore I chose to use both.
• How long will it take  to get this up and running?
  • The actual install process is really quick.  After doing it several times now, I can have pfSense installed and running in just under 15 minutes.  This doesn’t count the building of the hardware, downloading of the software and burning it to CD.  Plus once you have the system up and running, you will most likely want to look around at all the options and make some changes to your liking and/or needs.
• Why do you call this a Super Router?
  • That’s just my term, you can all it what ever you like.  To me, this setup seems SUPER compared to any other router I have ever owned.  Plus, by using both pfSense and Untangle, I feel I am getting the best of both products.  Now once you take this setup virtual (ie, on a virtual server), all that “Super” power is now in one box and your setup options really expand.
• With all this filtering going on, isn’t my internet connection going to be slower?
  • This is a hard one to answer as there are so many factors.  Some have seen a drop in speed when all available filters are running.  My own recent testing has been inconclusive.  The results indicated I was FASTER with everything turned on, which doesn’t seem right and requires further testing.  pfSense by itself and not running process intensive packages like Snort, should provide just as much speed, if not more, as your current router.  However, your actual results will be impacted by the hardware you use for the router.

Now that Microsoft has released the newest version of Home Server, Windows Home Server 2011 RC, it’s time to take a look at it again, this time with the 5 Bay Drobo S.  While this post focuses largely on the using the Drobo for storage, there are parts of it (especially at the end) where you could insert “storage larger than 2TB” and it would apply.  So, read, don’t skip, all the way to the end.

The Drobo S connects via USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire 800.  By enabling the dual-drive redundancy option, you can protect your data from failure of up to two hard drives. This Drobo contains a “self-healing technology” that will continually examine the blocks and sectors on every drive, flagging questionable areas. This preemptive "scrubbing" helps ensure your data is being written only to the healthy areas of your drives, and that your data is always safe. Even if a drive fails, Drobo S keeps your data in the safest state possible, utilizing the available space on the remaining healthy drives.

Drobo S connects to Windows, Mac, and Linux2 systems and supports NTFS, HFS+, EXT3, and FAT32 file formats.

Configuration

For testing purposes, we are using a system that used the Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 board, a Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 320 GB System Drive

The Dashboard from the WHS 2001 RC before the Drobo.

Set up was very simple – Plug in power and USB3 cables, install the Drobo software and navigate to the Advanced Tools Option.  USB3 functionality requires the latest Dashboard and Firmware. 

[Click on any image to make it larger]

Installed the new version

With the latest numbers

Now that the software and firmware are updated, let’s load some drives!  A lool at the Advanced Controls – Data Tab before we start.

Note:  Drobo shipped me the unit with 3TB Drives.  I took the drives out of the box and made no configuration changes to them. 

First I need to create a volume on the Drobo.  From my earlier Drobo Reviews, we know that the volume size created by the Drobo can be larger than the amount of storage space that is physically available.  

I am going to choose the NTFS – Vista or Windows 2003 option and going to create a full 16TB Volume. 

Choosing a drive – I named it Z: and Next and Format.

Confirm with Format

Format Progress

Once the format is complete, here is the Drobo Status

It handled the 3TB Drives without any special formatting or setting changes.  SInce there is only one drive in the unit, the Drobo cannot currently protect the data against loss. 

It then prompts you to add another drive.  I will add the second 3TB drive.

If you want to see a video on loading or replacing drives in a Drobo, I have two to watch. What Happens When A Drobo Drive Fails?  and What Happens When You Fill Up Your Drobo

It took less than 20 minutes for the second drive to be completely added to the pool.  I had complete access to the Drobo during this format and could move and copy files during the process

It transferred 4.07GB of data (the old Vail Beta install) from the DVD to the Drobo in about 5 minutes while the 2nd drive was being added to the pool.  I then copied a copy of that folder (another 4.07GB back to the drive and the operation took less than 3 minutes.  A serious improvement over the 4 bay Drobo on USB 2.

Like in the other reviews I have done, when a Drobo has just 2 drives loaded to it, BeyondRAID acts like RAID 1, mirroring the drives.

Back to the WHS Dashboard

From the dashboard, you can see that the drive is added to the list of available drives (Z: is this case).  The WHS see the 16 TB Volume and the newly used space (from the 2 copies of Vail Beta that I copied to the drive). 

We know that not all 16TB are available because the Drobo only has 2.7 or so available for storage after using some for data protection (incase of a drive failure) and overhead. 

With the 2nd drive format complete, my data is now completely protected from a single drive failure.  Let’s now load up the rest of the Drobo Bays.

WHS Drive Options

If I single click on the Drobo drive in the WHS Dashboard, I receive two options for the drive.  View the Properties or add it as a Server Back up.

I will select properties and get two tabs.  General and Shadow Copies. 

Moving Folders to the Drobo

Now that the Drobo is fully loaded with drives, it’s time to start taking advantage of them. 

Since Microsoft removed Drive Extender, I can no longer just add drives to the pool and expect them to be used automatically.  I need to manually point the location of the folder to the drive I desire.  In this case we are going to move all the shared folders to the Drobo.

They are currently all defaulted to the D: drive on my server.  Since that was the space that was left over after the server install (I used a 320GB drive as my system drive) that space would fill up fairly quick.  I am going to move them one at a time over to the Drobo.  I will start at the bottom with the Videos Folder.

This begins the Move a Folder Wizard.  First I will select Move the Folder and next.

Choose a new location

Selecting Z:\ServerFolders\Videos and Move Folder.  I will get a warning that this new location is an external drive.  I will select next.

Success!

The wizard prompts me to Open the Server Backup configuration to verity that the folder selected for back up.  There are some issues when using a single drive for data that is larger than the back up volume and will address that later in the post.  At the moment, I don’t even have a drive attached for Server backup.

Since I do not have a drive configured yet for Server Backup, the process fails.  Closing the Move a folder Wizard.  Here is the result of the move.

Now, all the data that I save to the Video Folder will be physically stored on the Drobo.  Protected by the BeyondRAID features native to the Drobo. 

To complete the process, I will move all the other folders in the same fashion.  Here it is complete.

I can also create a folder and point it to the Drobo.  Going to do that with a folder called Software.  From the Dashboard, select Add a folder.

From the Add a Folder Wizard, select Browse.  I will navigate to the Drobo Drive and find the ServerFolders

Select Make New Folder and name it software.  Under Name, type Software and Next.  There will be a warning about using and external drive, select next.

There is an option about user rights.  I am selecting Everyone (full access)

The folder is added and select Close.

I now have a folder called Software

To test this, I am going to move some files that I created earlier in the review to the software folder.  Moving about 8.15GB in about 8 minutes.  Here is a shot from the server.

The WHS is now ready to work with the Drobo and the data is now full protected by the Drobo’s BeyondRAID.  With the Drobo FS, I could lose up to two individual drives from the unit and still not lose any data.  With that kind of protection, who need Drive Extender?  That was so 2010!

Server Backup and Issues with a Drobo

This could be a problem for any large drive where the data drive is larger than the Server backup, so this isn’t a Drobo issue. Let me illustrate.

From the WHS Dashboard, I will start the Set up Backup for the server wizard.

Select Next

Since no drives are connected to the server for backup, I will install a 2TB USB external drive to act as one.

Going to Refresh the List

I am selecting the newly found drive (if you follow the show, I am using the 2TB drive that Tim Daleo gave me at CES) and next.

Of course it will!  Select Yes and Label the drive

It prompts for a schedule.  For now, I am going to take the defaults. Next, next and apply settings.  Now this is where it get sticky.  I get the option to back up either the D: drive on the local disk or the Z: Drobo drive.  I am going to select the Drobo check mark.

I get a system message that the selected drive (the Drobo) is larger than 2TB and cannot be included in the in the Server Backup. 

It asks me to consider dividing the hard disk into smaller drives?  Isn’t that why I went with a Drobo and a single drive? 

Since there is a well documented and discussed 2TB limit for backing up drives on the WHS 2011, I have to really think in advance about my configuration options BEFORE I set up a large storage array. 

So what are my options then?  I see three different ones.

1. Using the Drobo (or storage larger than 2TB) as the Backup Only – Build the WHS with your data on internal or external drives (2TB or smaller) and use the Drobo as the Server backup drive.  This would give the best of all words in guaranteeing that access to your music and videos would be at the best possible speeds while having max protection of your data.  The major drawback of course would be in cost.  You would have the cost of the WHS with drives as well as the Drobo and it’s drives.  Cloud based backup would provide extra off site protection.
2. Create Multiple 2TB Volumes on the Drobo (or storage larger than 2TB) – Build the WHS with just one physical drive for the system (or 2 drives in RAID 1) and create multiple 2TB volumes on the Drobo (the exact number would depend on the amount of space on the Drobo).  If you had two 2TB volumes as an example, you could use one for data and the other for Server backup.  The Drobo’s data protection features would protect you from a drive failure and the server backup would protect against user error.  Additional external drives could also be used to carry backups offsite for extra disaster recovery options.  Transfer speeds would be at  the normal Drobo limits but this would provide max data protection.  Paired with a cloud based backup solution, costs could be less than #1 but carries a drawback of possibly having many 2TB volumes to manage with the WHS. 
3. Create the max 16TB Volume on the Drobo  – If simplicity and size is all that matters, create the max volume (greater than 2TB) and let the Drobo do the rest.  Back up of the Drobo files beyond the unit would need to be done using a tool other than the WHS.  Files could be synced to an external drive via Sync Toy or RoboCopy and carried off site.  Data could be moved to the cloud using one of many cloud based backup solutions.  Drawbacks come in the complexity of the Server backup and potential lack of automatic schedules for backups. 

A Note About Disaster Recovery Option with the Drobo

Since I started this Drobo Review, one of the questions I get asked the most is, “What if the Drobo hardware fails?  What happens to my data then?”  I pinged Mario Blandini over at Drobo with that question and here is his response. 

The short answer is that Drobo disk packs can be moved between systems easily in the case of needing to replace a chassis, or wanting to move data between sites to another drobo without shipping the drobo chassis.  Naturally, it is always best to have a backup to protect against file corruption and for many compliance reasons, but restore from backup is not required to recover from a chassis hardware failure.  The longer answer is below.

One cool feature of BeyondRAID is that disk packs can always be moved between chassis of the same type.  As the information about the BeyondRAID configuration protecting the data on the disks is stored on the disks, you can always take a disk pack out of a Drobo and move it to the same model Drobo.  What works well for people is that the order does not even have to be the same, the drives can be mixed-up in order and it works great.  As long as a minimum number of drives is moved to a new chassis (i.e. less one for 4-bay, less 2 for bigger models that have dual-disk redundancy enabled), you are back up and running no matter the order of the disks in the system.  With most RAID boxes all drives must be very meticulously labeled and moved to the new chassis in the perfect order.

This feature of BeyondRAID can also help with some types of migrations for customers upgrading to the latest model, or moving to a larger model in the Drobo family.  Specifically, you could take the disk pack out of the Drobo 4-bay you are testing and move it to the Drobo S directly, no need to migrate data, use a temp holding location, or restore from backup.  If you wanted to do that in the review, that would be cool.  All of the instructions for migration are on our site @ www.drobo.com/migration, and specifically that one Drobo to Drobo S is @ http://www.drobo.com/migration/drobo-to-drobo-s.php.

This disk pack migration works from Drobo to Drobo S or DroboPro, and from Drobo FS to DroboPro FS.  Because the format differs between our DAS and File Sharing products, we don’t support directly migrating a disk pack from a Drobo or Drobo S to a Drobo FS.  Not sure if you saw the "Drobo Copy" feature built-in to DroboDashboard, it is a fairly straightforward copy utility that runs where DroboDashboard is running, and copies from any source to any destination; it can be used to move data between Drobo combinations which cannot take advantage of disk pack migration.  http://www.drobo.com/migration/drobo-to-drobo-fs.php

Thanks Mario.  Saved me a bunch of writing. 

Conclusion

The Drobo would be a very suitable Drive Extender replacement for the WHS 2011.  Because of the changes that Microsoft made to WHS 2011, mainly the 2TB limit placed on Backup drives, there is now an element of preplanning that needs to go into a system that is going to use large storage pools larger than 2TB. 

The USB3 option with the Drobo S is an definite upgrade from it’s 4 bay brother on USB2.  Performance and transfer speed were greatly improved over the older model. 

If future posts we will look breaking down the storage options list above, as well as streaming audio and video from the WSH 2011 using the Drobo as backend storage.

Watch the Drobo Review page for additional posts and updates.   Drobo and Windows Home Server

Jim Collison is a blogger and podcaster for HomeServerShow.com and TheAverageGuy.tv.

Full Disclosure – Drobo provided an evaluation unit with drives for this review.