Drobo B800i, Getting Started Manual

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drobo.com | Getting Started Guide for Your Drobo B800i | 5
Notes:
- Drobo B800i’s iSCSI connection supports gigabit Ethernet connections (1000 Mbit/s)
for optimal performance. Although your Drobo B800i will auto-negotiate the highest
connection speed available to your computer, router or switch, iSCSI is designed for
higher speeds and does not perform as well at slower speeds.
- You can purchase an add-on gigabit Ethernet adapter card for your computer if
needed. Note, however, that a regular network adapter card is required, as Data
Robotics, Inc., does not support iSCSI-specific cards, or HBA (host bus adapter)
cards.
Checking the Hardware You Need
To use your Drobo B800i, you’ll need at least two hard drives. If you plan to use Dual Disk
Redundancy, which protects your data against two hard drive failures, you will need at least
three hard drives.
Note:
For the Drobo B800i, we recommend that you use at least five 1TB, high-
performance drives. This provides more data drives, better striping performance
(especially with DDR enabled), and also helps distribute loads more effectively.
Tip:
For even better performance, we recommend five 2TB SATA drives.
This section helps you:
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Selecting Hard Drives
You can use hard drives from any manufacturer and with any capacity (the space available
on the hard drive) with your Drobo device.
All Drobo devices support standard 3.5” internal SATA drives. If you are unsure, ask your
administrator or hard drive retailer or manufacturer to verify that your hard drives meet this
standard.
Drobo devices are not compatible with SSD, IDE, SCSI or PATA hard drives.
Warning:
Any pre-existing data on the drives will be erased during installation.