Drobo 5D Setup

B&H Photo supplied the Data Robotics Drobo 5D for testing, along with five Hitachi 4TB hard drives.

Setup is quite fast, consisting of three main steps:

1. Download Drobo Dashboard at https://drobo.com/start. Go there, click once, the download starts. Very nicely done.
2. Install Drobo Dashboard (which also installs a 'kext', which I am not fond of, but that’s how the Drobo works).
3. Insert the drives (five are not required but this is best), plug in the supplied Thunderbolt cable (or USB3), power on the unit.
4. Launch Drobo Dashboard and initialize.

The Drobo unit itself does take a minute or so to boot itself up, so don’t expect it to appear immediately.

Formatting

Although Drobo Dashboard warns of an up to five minute wait, it got the job done in roughly 10 seconds. The device reboot did take somewhat longer.

Drobo Dashboard

Formatting done

Initial setup is quite fast. Although Drobo Dashboard warns of an up to five minute wait, it got the job done in roughly 10 seconds.

Drobo Dashboard