Checking The Hardware You Need; Selecting Drives - Drobo 5D Getting Started Manual

USB 3.0
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a popular interface that allows you to attach additional hardware
devices to your computer in a plug-and-play style. USB 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed USB,
provides data transfer speeds of up to 4.8 Gbit/s, much faster than USB 2.0.
In order to take advantage of this technology, your Drobo 5D must be connected to a USB 3.0
port on your computer. If your computer does not have USB 3.0, you can consult with your
computer manufacturer to find a compatible USB 3.0 card.
Note: If your computer only has a USB 2.0 connection, then Drobo 5D will auto-negotiate to USB
2.0 speeds.

Checking the Hardware You Need

To use your Drobo 5D, you will need at least two drives. If you plan to use
Redundancy, which protects your data against two drive failures, you will need at least three
drives.
This section covers the following topics:

Selecting Drives

Determining Drive Space Requirements
Using Power Protection
Selecting Drives
The Drobo 5D supports both standard 3.5" SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) as well as SATA solid
state drives (SSDs) for added performance. For HDDs, these drives can be from any
manufacturer and with any capacity. For SSDs, please visit our web page for
options.
In addition, the Drobo 5D has a Drobo Accelerator Bay, which accepts an industry-standard
mSATA SSD(Solid State Drive). When the mSATA SSD is installed, Drobo's
feature is enabled, accelerating performance when reading data from your Drobo device. Having
an mSATA SSD installed leaves all drive bays available for high-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs)
so that you can get both high-capacity and accelerated performance out of your Drobo device.
Using only SSDs in the main drive bays of your Drobo 5D provides the fastest performance when
reading and writing data to and from your Drobo device.
In summary, here are the recommended number and type of drives you can use with your
Drobo 5D. Note that you need at least two drives in the drive bays to ensure your data is
protected in the event of drive failure.
•
2 to 5 HDD(Hard Disk Drive)s in the main drive bays - enables you to maximize capacity
•
2 to 5 HDDs in the main drive bays plus an mSATA SSD installed - enables you to
maximize capacity and accelerate read performance
•
2 to 5 SSD(Solid State Drive)s in the main drive bays with no mSATA SSD - enables you
to maximize read and write performance
For a performance comparison of these options, see the following illustration.
Drobo 5D Getting Started Guide
Dual Disk
compatible drive
Data-Aware Tiering
8