Drobo, Server or online storage

AliMoore

AliMoore

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Hi everyone, am looking at getting Drobo 5n - I have studio with 4 apples 2 editing 1 viewing and 1 laptop! I would like to store all images on external hard drive as I have 2 togs and 1/2 potentials editors and would also like everyone be able to access all images and doc's stored on hdd. Don't know weather to go for Drobo , server or online storage and pay monthly/yearly subscription. I would also like to access files when am at home too!

Does anyone have similar set up of use something that would be good of my company!

All help appreciated!
 
Just checking someone has similar setup or can advise......
 
As a generalisation I wouldn't consider on-line storage as the main backup storage for the amount of data you're likely to be storing. It will be very slow compared with local storage and you don't have control of your data. Personally I wouldn't consider it at all but I may be a bit paranoid after 30+ years in IT. ;)

Not knowing what server options are available for Apple, I would go for Network Attached Storage (NAS) as your primary central storage and there are far more options than Drobo such as Qnap, Synology, Thecus and Asustor. Make sure you have good redundancy within whatever unit you buy and that you have a good backup strategy. This where you might want to consider cloud storage.

Jonathan
 
Problem with Drobos is that they have a proprietary storage file system - so you can't hoik a disk out and put in a chassis and go mobile, it will only work in a drobo cluster. They had a terrible reputation when they started too. I am in Pro Audio and have massive storage needs. NO ONE uses these.
I too think you are better with a NAS from Synology or such like. Or buy a mac mini server and some thunderbolt storage. In Pro Audio where we have shared storage there are specialist solutions like EVO NAS or ARDIS DDP.
Do not be under the illusion that a RAID means your data is backed up or more safe. Raided drives fail more often than non raided. It is NOT a back up.
Talk to a specialist media storage expert, you will save some £ in the long run by not buying twice. You have to be very careful with who has which media and all that management.
 
I've never owned a Drobo NAS but I've owned the 4-bay USB Drobo and the 8-bay iSCSI DroboPro. They are a long way from being the fastest products out there. What you get instead is a lot of flexibility and usability. Mixing and matching and adding and removing drives is easier than on any product I've come across.
 
forget the drobo, too many horror stories for my liking.

synology or qnap nas (some models you can expand via an esata port). or if you want a bit more hands on then a HP microserver. both options can be set up for remote access (id also forget full time online storage, what happens if your internet goes down? is your internet fast enough to handle constant upload/download?). I would also make sure that everything is gigabit cabled.

as said though, don't forget to spec in a separate backup.
 
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What are your storage requirements?
I'd use a NAS with tape backup run nightly.

If you lose your pics (fire, server crash, disk issues, power surges etc) you are out of business..
 
Hi guys,

First of all thinks for reply's. my intent is to access files on different computers in my studio as well as at home or when on another network. I have a editing computer which is mean comp viewing comp which is in another room 2nd editing comp and laptop which I'd like to access file from home, and also would I be able to access from iPad from viewing and other handy things. Backing up files is as important as networked shared files. At the moment am switching hdrive between computers and would like to cut this down plus seems am backing up twice - which I don't mind as I normally back up at each different stage of editing! I want to be able to backup my edited photos and just be able to go into my viewing computer and lift them and put the photos into viewing software, at the moment am using USB sticks and have to exports small file si if I wanna do anything with photos I have to change to other computer- just a whole handling at moment.
 
AliMoore said:
Hi guys,

First of all thinks for reply's. my intent is to access files on different computers in my studio as well as at home or when on another network. I have a editing computer which is mean comp viewing comp which is in another room 2nd editing comp and laptop which I'd like to access file from home, and also would I be able to access from iPad from viewing and other handy things. Backing up files is as important as networked shared files. At the moment am switching hdrive between computers and would like to cut this down plus seems am backing up twice - which I don't mind as I normally back up at each different stage of editing! I want to be able to backup my edited photos and just be able to go into my viewing computer and lift them and put the photos into viewing software, at the moment am using USB sticks and have to exports small file si if I wanna do anything with photos I have to change to other computer- just a whole handling at moment.
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neil_g said:
I think we need to know the working budget on this before we all get carried away :D

also the amount of storage and expansion required.
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:)
 
I've got Bt infinity 80 mb do and 20mb ul unlimited in studio and at home 30 down 8 up. Also my wrkflow for viewing could be improved - my editing is lroom raw conversion + light edits, just enough for viewings - just put best 20images from studio/lifestyle/pre-we'd and bout 60-80 from weddings through photoshop. That's my editing wrkflow. Then I take photos into pro select which I can export from Lightroom direct into pros elect but this would mean that I export a particular viewing as a lroom catalogue backup on hdrive then take hdrive to view comp - so basically I wanna cut down few steps and have a better viewing wrkflow as I feel this process is very slow epically if I have 3/4 viewings in one day, I've also tried network sharing between apple commuters buts this always fails


If I need to start a new thread for this I will and apologise in advance for overload of info ang hope it makes since lol

Thanks
 
Budget between 500/700 but if yous think that something over £1000 would be best I would consider its not really capped. How much storage.... Am doing 20 weds and 100-150 studio/lifestyle/pre weds a year!! Prob use 1teribite or maybe a bit more a year - hope this answers ur question
 
I've used bout 1.5 terabits in 2 1/2 years but my backup hasn't been consistent and I've got a m and I am getting busier each year. I have a mixture of data and photos on hdrive but ill be mostly backing up photos and we are also considering branching out to doing videos but ill cross that bridge when it comes
 
How IT savvy are you? Do you want an off the shelf solution or home rolled.

My strategy with what I think you have would be:

  • Decent NAS locally, probably running some form of redundancy (i.e. RAID)
  • Mirrored backup in a separate box locally or at home (if you know how to bridge the two networks). If you did this at home, you'd do the backup locally first, then do incremental changes so you wouldn't need to upload 1.5TB through the net...
  • One of these backed up to the cloud via an unlimited storage package. Would take an age to do first time, but I'm on a 60/20 link here and regularly backup 50G-100G/week with my online storage provider.
 
PS. One problem with your workflow may well be that LR doesn't allow you to put your catalogues on network drives. This means that whilst you can store the images centrally, you can't share catalogues between computers as easily.
 
AliMoore said:
Budget between 500/700 but if yous think that something over £1000 would be best I would consider its not really capped. How much storage.... Am doing 20 weds and 100-150 studio/lifestyle/pre weds a year!! Prob use 1teribite or maybe a bit more a year - hope this answers ur question
Click to expand...

AliMoore said:
I've used bout 1.5 terabits in 2 1/2 years but my backup hasn't been consistent and I've got a m and I am getting busier each year. I have a mixture of data and photos on hdrive but ill be mostly backing up photos and we are also considering branching out to doing videos but ill cross that bridge when it comes
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in that case..

Synology DS1512+ (£640) - 5 bay, twin gigabit, mac and pc compatible sharing etc. and lob at least 3 3TB drives (~£90ea) in raid5 giving you ~6TB to play with and another 6 available to expand to. plenty of expansion, plus you can get 2 more 5 bay addons if ever needed. future proof to the max lol

I used to have a DS1010+ which was an earlier model and it was flawless and excellent speed over gigabit cable accessing RAW for lightroom.

then use the place andy recommends for online backup. and/or just get a couple of external USB drives (which you can plug into the Synology for direct backup) and rotate them off site.

arad85 said:
PS. One problem with your workflow may well be that LR doesn't allow you to put your catalogues on network drives. This means that whilst you can store the images centrally, you can't share catalogues between computers as easily.
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indeed. would be best to store all RAW on the NAS then set LR to backup the catalogue to the NAS on close. but obviously youd all still have separate working databases on each machine unless you export the cats and import them each time.
 
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a cheaper, but more hands on method would be a HP microserver. but some knowledge of setting up RAID and network shares would be required.

the Synology route would need some initial setting up but its all wizard based.
 
oh and its probably worth looking at UPS, a refurb from ebay, search "ups-trader". no point having all that storage then for all of the hard drives to die in a power cut/surge/brown out.

the NAS can plug into the UPS via USB and shut itself down when the battery is low (and power back on when resumed). check the synology compatible list but most APC units should be okay.
 
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+1 for the HP Microserver. Lots of bang for your bucks but it does take a bit of effort setting it up. One of these replaced my DroboPro. It's a proper server so it's very flexible. I run ESXi 5 on mine supporting a couple of virtual servers.
 
Not very it literate - was recommended this which thought would work well http://www.qnapstore.com/products/qnap-ts-469-pro-bespoke.html. The reason for storing a lroom cat on server/hdrive would be just to access it on viewing computer, I'd only be exporting 1,2 or 3 albums at a time depending how many views I have for that day.... So I can open it on viewing comp's lroom and then export into proselect or maybe there's a quicker/easier way. The synology ds1512+ looks good also can I download apps on iPhone and iPads to view files - it has to be the most user friendly as well lol.

I know I've asked for quite a custom set up but the best avail for my budget and usability friendly

Thanks for all this useful info - tp rocks!!
 
Aww ok I didn't realise this, am sure ill get another way round, I just need to sharpen up my workflow!! For editing and viewings
 
neil_g said:
in that case..

Synology DS1512+ (£640) - 5 bay, twin gigabit, mac and pc compatible sharing etc. and lob at least 3 3TB drives (~£90ea) in raid5 giving you ~6TB to play with and another 6 available to expand to. plenty of expansion, plus you can get 2 more 5 bay addons if ever needed. future proof to the max lol

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I strongly recommend not using fewer than four drives for RAID5. If you have three and one fails the remaining two slow down dramatically. I'd also recommend something like WD Red drives as they're designed for NAS use and these are more like £120 each than £90. I've got four of the 2TB version in my home server and I'm very pleased with them.
 
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I have Bt infinity business 80 dl 20 ul, it's supper fast
 
Snapsh0t said:
I strongly recommend not using fewer than four drives for RAID5. If you have three and one fails the remaining two slow down dramatically. I'd also recommend something like WD Red drives as they're designed for NAS use and these are more like £120 each than £90. I've got four of the 2TB version in my home server and I'm very pleased with them.
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any raid level will slow down while its degraded no matter how many disks. but im not quite sure whether youre saying to have a hot spare?

for the record ive been using Samsung non-nas specific drives in my storage for years with no bother. I cant help thinking hard drive manufacturers are onto a bit of a money spinner there.. but that's another topic maybe :D
 
Would it not be easier to get one of those home server things such as the HP micro server and stack it with some hard drives? give it a static IP address and set it up as a file server.

At least then everyone is able to access it and it stores all the images in a centralised location. You can then backup the hard drives within this server on a regular basis.
 
The pokemon kid said:
Would it not be easier to get one of those home server things such as the HP micro server and stack it with some hard drives? give it a static IP address and set it up as a file server.

At least then everyone is able to access it and it stores all the images in a centralised location. You can then backup the hard drives within this server on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Like I said earlier, it would take more setting up and some knowledge of setting up raid and network shares etc. depends how involved you want to get..
 
neil_g said:
any raid level will slow down while its degraded no matter how many disks. but im not quite sure whether youre saying to have a hot spare?

for the record ive been using Samsung non-nas specific drives in my storage for years with no bother. I cant help thinking hard drive manufacturers are onto a bit of a money spinner there.. but that's another topic maybe :D
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When you get to five drives in a RAID5 the slowdown is minimal. One drive in a five-drive RAID dropped out while I was on holiday at one of my sites and no-one noticed! :D A hot spare would be good but not always realistic. I've settled for a cold spare but at least I have it here, ready to go if needed, and my server has hot-swap bays so the changeover would be quick.

I agree fully with you that the HP Microserver isn't appropriate in this case. The noises Ali is making suggest he's purely a user rather than a dabbler. ;)
 
Thanks guys from your knowledge, some yous really knows ur stuff, am only tog and wanna spend time behind camera and less in front of screen but will to learn!

Am not really sure what you guys mean by hot drive etc. but am willing to learn! If centralizing it and buying an IP address will work best for me then ill do that!
I just want to clean all my hard drives internal and external (apart from my current working file) and be able to access them on any computer - on same network and on other networks ie studio, home and abroad!

So what my intentions will be - workflow wise will be - my originals raw files will be backed up on server/network drive plus stored on editing/working Mac, then do my first edits and backup again on server, then possible ps edits and creative edits then another backup! So every event/shoot will have its own folder and inside there will be different stages of edits so if I need to jump back to a stage I can easily, this way I don't have to save layered psd's!

Thanks again
 
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