Drobo B800i Can't Turn On, Continuous Power Cycling
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In the NTG Lab we have had a Drobo B800i SAN that we have been using for bulk storage for our virtualization hosts. Today the Drobo appears to have died. From what we can tell, the Drobo powers up, only for a few seconds. Then it powers down for a second and powers up again.
Obviously we are never able to see it from the Drobo console. We've tried blowing everything out and reseating the drives, but it behaves just the same after that too.
Looks like the unit is fried. It is a SAN after all, you can't expect much life out of it.
Anyone know if there is any trick to fixing one of these or is it just toast? We are assuming it is just toast, but wanted to gather some thoughts before cannibalizing it. -
Accidentally double posted. Just comment over on this thread: http://mangolassi.it/topic/4630/drobo-b800i-startup-issues
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First suspect is the PSU - $0.02
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Likely. That means that the machine is toast, sadly.
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And, of course, it was an inverted pyramid of doom, single point of failure. Just a lab, no big loss. But kind of funny that it happened first hand after years of warning people about this exactly scenario. We always assumed that it would happen, is the difference.
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Drobo reached out to us without us having to say a thing and the replacement is already on its way!
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Cool - did they see your post on here or SW?
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One of their ex-staffers knew about it and emailed someone. Then they saw it in a comment on SW as someone was mentioning using a B800i there.
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That's awesome that they have a new one shipping out to you already.
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I suspect that it's only because of Scott or because it's NTG.
Skeptical nadnerB does not believe any one else would receive the same treatment.
But who invited Skeptical nadnerB? -
@nadnerB said:
I suspect that it's only because of Scott or because it's NTG.
Skeptical nadnerB does not believe any one else would receive the same treatment.
But who invited Skeptical nadnerB?I completely agree.
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@nadnerB said:
I suspect that it's only because of Scott or because it's NTG.
Skeptical nadnerB does not believe any one else would receive the same treatment.
But who invited Skeptical nadnerB?Exactly. We'd never get service like that. Scott/NTG get the best. That why I decided not to chance it with a Drobo. I read online of many many PSU failures in the drobo pro/pro fs and this unit (all similar designs). Not sure what I'll look at for backups. I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
Unlikely there as we've never contact Netgear support before, to the best of my knowledge. We've never had equipment die "young" enough to not just bin it if it had problems. It's possible that NTG has had to reach on to Netgear support and I am not aware, but I was definitely not involved if they did and they would have not know who we were.
We DID have two Netgears die this week (switches.) But to be fair, the electrical event that killed them burned out pretty much everything at the site (they opted not to have UPS or even surge protectors) and fully electrified their rack. So that the gear was Netgear really had nothing to do with it. I don't believe it was a lightning strike but could have been. I think it was just a failure from the power grid that let a huge surge through.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Exactly. We'd never get service like that. Scott/NTG get the best. That why I decided not to chance it with a Drobo. I read online of many many PSU failures in the drobo pro/pro fs and this unit (all similar designs). Not sure what I'll look at for backups. I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
Sayeth the person that received a Unifi AP AC for free after a random forum conversation discussing issues with other hardware.
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Hey, no one ever shipped me a free wireless unit. Hint hint.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Hey, no one ever shipped me a free wireless unit. Hint hint.
me either, though I did win a server last year from @xByte
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@JaredBusch said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Exactly. We'd never get service like that. Scott/NTG get the best. That why I decided not to chance it with a Drobo. I read online of many many PSU failures in the drobo pro/pro fs and this unit (all similar designs). Not sure what I'll look at for backups. I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
Sayeth the person that received a Unifi AP AC for free after a random forum conversation discussing issues with other hardware.
Yeah But I paid them for it later on after I got it. Took a little convincing to get the to let me pay though. I Don't keep free stuff like that unless it's a true giveaway that anyone could have entered and won. I either look at it and end it back or keep it and pay them for it, the only exception has been some software (that was use for pro bono work). Mainly because I don't think you can truly evaluate and review a product or recommended it to anyone unless you have had to personally invest in it. Otherwise your take will be biased. And I think people deserve to be paid for their work.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@JaredBusch said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Exactly. We'd never get service like that. Scott/NTG get the best. That why I decided not to chance it with a Drobo. I read online of many many PSU failures in the drobo pro/pro fs and this unit (all similar designs). Not sure what I'll look at for backups. I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
Sayeth the person that received a Unifi AP AC for free after a random forum conversation discussing issues with other hardware.
Yeah But I paid them for it later on after I got it. Took a little convincing to get the to let me pay though. I Don't keep free stuff like that unless it's a true giveaway that anyone could have entered and won. I either look at it and end it back or keep it and pay them for it, the only exception has been some software (that was use for pro bono work). Mainly because I don't think you can truly evaluate and review a product or recommended it to anyone unless you have had to personally invest in it. Otherwise your take will be biased. And I think people deserve to be paid for their work.
That means, though, that you can only really evaluate stuff that you specifically need and can afford. You could never review a VMAX, for example. I appreciate the idea and see the value in it, but I don't think it is practical unless you are insanely rich and seeking to donate your wealth to hardware manufacturers. There is no simple answer. If you get everything for free you are not invested in it. If you pay for everything you get screwed and/or never get a lot of gear that people would like to see you use.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That means, though, that you can only really evaluate stuff that you specifically need and can afford. You could never review a VMAX, for example. I appreciate the idea and see the value in it, but I don't think it is practical unless you are insanely rich and seeking to donate your wealth to hardware manufacturers. There is no simple answer. If you get everything for free you are not invested in it. If you pay for everything you get screwed and/or never get a lot of gear that people would like to see you use.
Exactly. There is a reason all companies with product attend trade shows, do free demos and give always. They are marketing. They are getting their name out there and getting REAL users and real feedback.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@JaredBusch said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Exactly. We'd never get service like that. Scott/NTG get the best. That why I decided not to chance it with a Drobo. I read online of many many PSU failures in the drobo pro/pro fs and this unit (all similar designs). Not sure what I'll look at for backups. I also think this is the same reason they have good luck with Netgear and most others Dont.
Sayeth the person that received a Unifi AP AC for free after a random forum conversation discussing issues with other hardware.
Yeah But I paid them for it later on after I got it. Took a little convincing to get the to let me pay though. I Don't keep free stuff like that unless it's a true giveaway that anyone could have entered and won. I either look at it and end it back or keep it and pay them for it, the only exception has been some software (that was use for pro bono work). Mainly because I don't think you can truly evaluate and review a product or recommended it to anyone unless you have had to personally invest in it. Otherwise your take will be biased. And I think people deserve to be paid for their work.
That means, though, that you can only really evaluate stuff that you specifically need and can afford. You could never review a VMAX, for example. I appreciate the idea and see the value in it, but I don't think it is practical unless you are insanely rich and seeking to donate your wealth to hardware manufacturers. There is no simple answer. If you get everything for free you are not invested in it. If you pay for everything you get screwed and/or never get a lot of gear that people would like to see you use.
Or work for a company that has money or gets free stuff. Its not my money when its company stuff anyway so i dont apply the same thing. But, I don't count most vendor demos that won't let you tinker with the devices. I can tell you how many times I've had Dell/Equal Logic do on site demos of their SANs but they are always super controlled tests they do. And that was even as somone who had 4 older (2 on site, 2 DR) model EqualLogic SAN units in place (hence why looking to replace them).
