Question 1

Not familiar with the Raid specs but this unit be setup as separate drives under computer directory??

Accepted Answer

The array supports RAID 0/1/3/5/10, as well as JBOD ("Just a Bunch Of Drives"). In RAID modes, the set of drives will appear as one logical drive to your computer's operating system. In JBOD mode, it will show each individually.

Right now, my unit has 4 completely different SATA drives in it: a 160GB, a 320GB, a 1.5TB, and a 2 TB. Each shows up separately to the Linux kernel of my PC: sdb, sdc, sdd and sde. I'm using a Linux software feature called Logical Volume Management (LVM) to make the three smaller drives, sdb/sdc/sdd, appear as one large 1.8TB logical drive. I'm accessing the 2TB sde drive separately - i.e., the four drives appear to my OS as two drives.

Windows has similar capabilities. The advantage of this type of setup is that as you run low on disk space, you just add another drive (in this case, up to 4 - a physical space limitation on the Sans TR4) using the storage volume manager on your PC. The drawback is that  you're not taking advantage of RAID's enhanced redundancy. With Windows, you can mount the new JBOD drives as separate drives, i.e. E:\, F:\, G:\, and H:\, or combine them as one via software and mount it as a single drive E:\, or you can even mount it somewhere on a directory on your C:\ drive, like C:\archive - it's up to you!

Depending on the RAID mode you're running, if a drive fails, you replace it with an identical drive and the RAID hardware will rebuild the RAID volume, and you won't lose any data. With JBOD, any disk failure means you're probably screwed - especially if you combine them logically into a single volume like I'm doing now.

My current setup is temporary. I'm backing up the data from the 1.8TB logical volume to the 2TB drive. Once that's done, I'll purchase three identical 3 or 4TB drives and create a 6 or 8TB RAID 5 array. It will be faster and more reliable than the software LVM that I have now.

Question 2

I would like to use this in JBOD mode on a WD TV Live Media Player WDBHG70000NBK, my question is: is the JBOD function hard set via the switch on the Sans Box and will let the WD TV Live see the different drive letters, has anyone actually tested this? 
Thanks :)

Accepted Answer

I have not tested the box in a JBOD configuration - however, I can attest to the performance as a RAID5 enclosure.  I bought one last year in February, and configured it with 4x 2TB drives and connected it to my Windows 2012 Essentials server via USB 3.0 to add drive Storage Space.  The drives are not perfectly matched, even different manufacturers - just cheap 2TB drives from Seagate and Western Digital, but they were instantly recognized and configured by the SANS DIGITAL TR4UTBPN.  After about 8 months of constant use, I decided to add more storage so I purchased a second unit and configured it with 4x1TB drives, and again theses were not perfectly matched - a couple were new "green" drives, and a couple were previously used in another server that I had decommissioned.  All were instantly recognized and were easily added to the storage space on my Windows 2012 Essentials server.  The RAID5 configuration does yield only 75% of the overall drive capacity (25% is used for the recovery data), but this is by far the least expensive way to get large amounts of reliable file storage.  If any drive goes bad, simply replace it with a new one of the same size and the built in RAID5 software will rebuild it.  If you opt for JBOD you still risk losing any given drive so backup is either an issue or you have to just live with losing it; each drive should appear as a separate drive letter to whatever you connect it to via the USB.  Both of my SANS DIGITAL TR4UTBPN boxes are running quietly with no overheating issues.  I plan to buy a third box to keep as a spare just in case something happens to one of the 2 I currently have, but I have no reason to believe they are anything other than reliable and well built.

Question 3

Does this enclosure support 4TB drive?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I installed 4 (four), 4TB drives in the enclosure.  With RAID configuration (each drive paired with another), that gave me a total of 8TB in backup.

Question 4

If this were to die, would your data be lost along with it or would you simply be able to move the drives over to a new enclosure?

Accepted Answer

If you are using it as a JBOD, you will be able to move the drive to a new enclosure or a PC and use it. If you are using it as a RAID 5 unit, you will need to get another similar unit to be able to retrieve your data.

Question 5

Per bay, how much storage can it take? Will it take 4TB WD Reds?

Accepted Answer

We are using the enclosure with the 4TB black series. Black has an additional 2 years of warranty over the red. We are using two of these enclosures as our first tier of backup on our network. They are both working very well.

Question 6

Has this product been used with a Mac Pro with intel processor?

Accepted Answer

I haven't personally tested it, but the TR4's hardware RAID (bundled with OS X) should work with OS X on the Mac Pro in USB 3.0 mode. They supply an OS X RAID monitoring utility, so you should be fine there.

Because my host system is Linux rather than Windows or Mac, I had to use software RAID with the array in JBOD mode to get any visibility of individual drive failures - while the hardware RAID capability worked fine, without detailed monitoring visibility, I couldn't tell if any particular drive was having any problems.

One thing I did find is that there's a design bug in the TR4UTBPN while in JBOD mode - and Sans confirmed it. In my case, any drive placed in slot 1 (or the next lowest-numbered slot if slot 1 is empty), will have multiple sector transfer capability disabled, as well as many security modes disabled, and some other features.

What happens is that the the host's SATA controller queries the bus for device 0, the built-in hardware RAID interface in the unit reports back, rather than the first drive in the array. In essence, commands destined for the first drive are intercepted by the RAID controller - even though it's disabled.

So I returned the unity, and am having it replaced with a TR4M6G - a JBOD-only array.

Question 7

Is it compatible with MAC?

Accepted Answer

In RAID form, it's compatable with just about any computer. The item has both USB 3 and eSATA connections. The only "gotcha" is that in order to use it as JBOD you need a eSATA controller that supports "port multiplier". but in RAID modes, it is just presented to the connected machine as a single drive.

Question 8

Does a drive have to be formatted before installation to the enclosure? In a JBOD configuration.

Accepted Answer

No. However, to do JBOD, your eSATA controller MUST feature 'Port Multiplier' (mine didn't, but I wanted RAID5 anyway)

Question 9

Could you use this for a Minecraft server?

Accepted Answer

This is a storage device only. It is not a server or nas or san. It will move data very quick from it to what ever PC/Server you have it attached to.  Like any USB/esata hard drive. But if you use it in raid 5, your data is protected if 1 hard drive dies. Just replace that drive and it will rebuild on its own.

Question 10

Can this enclosure to Raid 5 with no hot spare? I have one, but can't determine if there is a setting for no hot spare?

Accepted Answer

I don't understand the question. I selected R5 with the little rotary switch on the back, populated with 4x3TB drives, and I have 9TB available space, which is right for a R5 (one drive's worth of space lost to parity). If it was using R5 with a hotspare, it would only be 6TB available. I'm not sure if the enclosure even has a setting for R5 with a hotspare.

If you're wanting to use every bit of available space on the disks, you want R0, which of course has no redundancy, so a single lost disk will render it unusable.

Brand	SANS DIGITAL
Series	TowerRAID
Model	TR4UTBPN

Drive	SATA I/II/III (1.5 Gb/s, 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s)
External I/O	USB 3.0 (backward compatible with USB 2.0) and eSATA
RAID Levels	0, 1, 10, 3, 5, Clone (N-way Mirror) with Hot Spare and JBOD

Dimensions	7.10" x 5.30" x 10.00"
Weight	5.90 lbs.

SANS DIGITAL TowerRAID TR4UTBPN 4-Bay 3.5" SATA to USB 3.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID-5 Storage Tower

Sans Digital TowerRAID TR4UTBPN - Four-Bay USB 3.0 / eSATA Hardware RAID 5 Tower

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Item#: N82E16816111149