Selecting A File System And Volume Size For The Drobo 8D - Drobo 8D User Manual

Table of Contents

1.2.8.2

Selecting a File System and Volume Size for the

Drobo 8D

When you turn on the Drobo 8D, you will be prompted to format the drives with a particular file

system. The file system formats available to you depends on your operating system. (See the Figure

below.)

You have to format the Drobo 8D into at least one volume and should choose an appropriate size for

the volume created. A volume is a storage area that has been formatted with a file system format

which your operating system can recognize.

The largest volume size you are allowed depends on the file system format you choose and the total

capacity of the drives in the Drobo device. The following table shows the maximum volume size

allowed for each file system format.

Important Notes:

The term Volume does not represent how much actual storage space is available on the

Drobo 8D.You can also create more volumes by using

For example, the Drobo 8D may be loaded with 2TB + of drive space, but you can create a

volume of 128 TB. What this enables you to do is, add more capacity to the Drobo 8D (by

inserting an additional drive or replacing a smaller capacity drive with a larger capacity one)

without having to format an additional volume. The additional capacity may become part of

the same volume you formatted originally.

For more information see

Your operating system may show the virtual space available on the Drobo device, as

defined by the volume size.

If the amount of available, protected storage space in the Drobo 8D ever exceeds the size

of the volume that you chose (this may occur when you add one or more additional drives to

the Drobo 8D), then Drobo Dashboard will automatically create a new volume (or volumes) of

the same size as the original volume. Drobo Dashboard will notify you when this occurs and

ask you to format and name the new volume(s).

Tip:

We would recommend you to choose the largest volume size available for the selected file

system. However,note that smaller volume sizes can be more efficient and manageable in

certain situations, such as when indexing, scanning or searching volumes.