Salta al contenuto principale

Acronis & Drobo 5N2 not playing well together

Thread needs solution

I purchased a Drobo5N2 and having recurring problems with Acronis failing to complete a full system backup.

Running WIN7, and Acronis 2019, previously backing up only to a Synology NAS with no problems.  I installed a new Drobo5N2 and can make small (directory backups < 5G) with Acronis.  When I try and back my SSD (~300G) the backup ultimately fails.  I had suspicions about a permission issue, but have logged and run it in Windows as the Admin and used admin password to reduce potential issues.

The backup runs, and I can see it make a series of versions files on the backup ...full_b1_s1_v1, v2, v3 all the way to v6, with timestamps about 2 minutes apart.   I then get an error "Error occurred while writing the file." this happens about 50G into the backup. 

-> Tried duplicating an existing Acronis backup setting and replacing target.  (I can't say I ever checked the Synology - but is it normal for a single back to span multiple versions in a single backup?)

-> Reviewing DROBO site can find no issues about incompatibilities.

Thoughts?

 

0 Users found this helpful

Stuart, I've only seen the default size of backups split to smaller increments in two scenarios (unless specifically set by the user):

1) The connection is using FTP, which has a 2GB limit

2) The destination disk is corrupted and doesn't have enough contiguous space on it to accommodate larger files

I've not used Drobo so can't say what settings may help here.  We have had other offices use them in the past and the performance was not great.  Those were older systems though, and suffered from lack of CPU and memory to handle backups of several systems at the same time. 

I'm sure there are people who love them, but these articles kind of state what I was told by our other offices and there seem to be more than a handful discussing 2GB file limits too as I Google it.

https://drobocommunity.m-ize.com/t/drobo-access-2gb-upload-limit/142622 (this one mentions a default 2GB issue)

https://pcper.com/2016/04/droboaccess-enables-ssl-encrypted-remote-file-access-for-drobo-5n-and-b810n/ (this one mentions a default 2GB issue)

https://scottkelby.com/im-done-with-drobo/

https://talk.macpowerusers.com/t/goodbye-drobo-hello-synology/11380

 

Thanks, looking at the article and still playing with the settings.  Turned off SMBv1 on the Drobo, and running Acronis with file splitting, to parse the backup in small sections.  I put two new 3TB drives in so, I would hate to need to pull the drives and run SPINRITE... but I will keep that item as an option.

Setting the device up for my parents to replace their 10 yr old Drobo, so thought staying with the same brand would work well, and be a simple update.  Speed was a second factor.  

Turned off SMBv1 on the Drobo, and running Acronis with file splitting, to parse the backup in small sections. 

OK, so it sounds like you set the file limit to 2GB then, so that solves that particular issue?

Now, to figure out why the backup fails after approximately 50GB... Is there a resource monitor that would allow you to monitor CPU, memory utilization and bandwidth during the backup?  Hopefully, it is not running out of resources and just pooping out so easily or a bad disk causing issues.

I'm just reading other Drobo forum threads and seems like some of them do have their share of issues.  Might be tough to figure out, but I hope you do!!!! Otherwise, if you're still within the return period, I don't know if you might want to consider a Synology or QNAP or even a WD product (I have a measly 4TB WD MyCloud and although it is very no-frills and a few years old, it has been doing its job pretty well - I would imagine some of the newer models would be improved too.)

Here are a couple more interesting randomly disconnecting drobo write-ups that might help you in your trouble-shooting...

http://www.zumsteg.net/2016/11/11/solving-drobo-random-unmounting-issues/

https://blog.yagelski.com/2016/05/drobo-5n-nas-keeps-losing-network.html

Stuart,  you might consider getting on the Drobo forum yourself and asking about performance issues with your particular drive.  You might find about fixes to old problems and unfixed new problems. 

If you do decide to switch to a different vendor and (for whatever reason) need FTP support, be aware the the FTP server in the current WD MyCloud firmware cannot talk with the ATI FTP client.  And from the research I did a year ago, that seems to be the same firmware in other modern WD NAS devices.  (The old WD MyBookLive, and an older generation of MyCloud firmware had not trouble communicating with ATI.  And the current MyCloud FTP server has no trouble talking with any other FTP client that I've tried; just ATI.)

If you

After 2+ weeks of poor support by Drobo - I RMA'd the device.   Drobo would never answer the question if there was a size limit, and really wouldn't provide any timely interactions.

We'll, at least you were able to return it! But yeah, I haven't heard a lot of praise on drobo hardware or support. You're probably better off in the long run and hopefully your next device will play nicer!