I recently purchased a DroboPro to replace my 2TB RAID 5 array. The new device has 8 SATA bays, and I've filled 5 of them with 1TB drives, giving me about 4TB of available space.
The old RAID server ran Fedora 4, but the DroboPro doesn't seem to have support for linux hosts. I've had to rely on a 64-bit XP machine just to get partitions > 2TB.
The problem is, I've lost a lot of the features I'm used to having on my file server : most notably, file linking and *nix-style permissions.
Any suggestions how best to fill the gap?
Not sure if this is really feasible, but could you create multiple 2TB volumes on the Drobo and then use a combination of symlinks/mount points to create your desired folder structure? Obviously this is not ideal, but it might be workable until Drobo supports ext4 or >2TB volume sizes.
Also, in the situation where you manually setup the Drobo (from the krook.net site), could you use the http://drobo-utils.sourceforge.net/ app to monitor your disks as before?
The drobopro supports iSCSI. Setup iSCSI, and then use whatever filesystem you like on the iSCSI device.
Are you trying to connect the Drobo Pro directly to your server, or have it act as a NAS?
If the former, this post may be of use:
http://krook.net/archives/217
It's about using a Drobo on Linux, but it sounds like he got around the same issue (lack of official support) that you're facing.
Windows vista and 7 support filesystem-level links similar to Unix ones, called "junction points"; they've actually been around since Windows 2000, but only in Vista Microsoft started actually using them.
Regarding permissions... I personally think the ACLs in NTFS are much, much better than the "owner-group-others" Unix access model.
Since you have a windows license, why not install VMWare Player, Virtualbox or any other virtualization platform and install XP in that. Then use the dashboard application in there to control the Drobo and present it as an iSCSI target to your Linux host. IF the only thing you need is the dashboard once in a while this would be perfect.