Help needed installing Drobo on Sonoma
I have a Mac Studio running Monterey. I installed the Drobo Dashboard 3.6.1 and got everything running ok. I use the Drobo 5D3 to store Plex media (and have a backup!). Before upgrading to Sonoma, I wanted to do a test to see if I could still get it to work but I have run into a brick wall that I think is associated with the Kernel extension not being installed. The steps I followed are as below.
1. Installed a fresh version of Sonoma on an external SSD that I wiped before the install.
2. Booted from Sonoma and went into recovery mode and reduced the security to allow user management of kernel extensions from known developers
3. Fired up the Drobo installer - Allowed Rosetta to be installed and then fired it up again.
4. Did the install but at no time was I asked to install a kernel extension. Install completed
5. Restarted as instructed
6. Opened Drobo dashboard and it asked me to give it full disk access for DDService64d which I did
I then connected the Drobo to the Mac Studio. It showed up on the desktop as an orange generic USB icon. When I clicked on the icon to bring up a finder window no disc contents were visible. I then fired up the Drobo dashboard and it could not find a Drobo. If I connect by thunderbolt I do not see the drive on the desktop but it is visible if I look under system report
For me it all points to a missing Kext. I tried uninstalling the Drobo Dashboard and re-installing it but I still did not get asked about installing a Kext.
Does anybody have any idea of the name of the Kext - could I copy it over to the Sonoma install?
How can I force the installer to install the KEXT?
Would doing a migration from my Monterey disc bring the Kext over?
Any suggestions are appreciated?
Thanks!
(I know I have to replace the Drobo but have still to find the right device. I use a Synology NAS and understand what it can do (hybrid raid etc) but the network connection means much slower file transfers. An OWC enclosure is faster but it is a fixed raid with no flexibility)
I had issues with my Drobo 5D and Sonoma too. Here's my steps to get it working:
1 - Make sure Drobo is turned off and not connected to Mac.
2 - Restart Mac into Recovery startup and set it to reduced security and allow user management of extensions for any developer:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchl768f7291/mac
3 - Restart back to normal MacOS and reinstall Drobo Dashboard 3.6.1. That should trigger the extension to install and will say you need authorize it in System Settings / Privacy & Security. In there you'll also need to check that under Security it's set to "Allow applications downloaded from App Store and identified developers".
4 - It's also worth checking in Privacy & Security that under Full Disk Access "DDService64d" is listed and turned on.
5 - Launch Drobo Dashboard (may notify things have been added to the OS, just accept anything it mentions).
6 - Now plug in the Drobo and turn it on. It should show up in Drobo Dashboard.
If Drobo still doesn't show up, I'd restart the Mac and try plugging the Drobo in again as it may need to load the newly installed extension on restart.
Also note, I'm connecting mine through USB 3.0 with a USB-C adapter, I have read some people having problems with Thunderbolt.
Also note, I also initially tried to get it working with an external install of Sonoma, but couldn't. The Drobo extension always got blocked, so I gave up as I think MacOS will just keep blocking it in an external OS install for safety reasons. But as soon as I did the internal install of Sonoma it all worked.
So I can say the problem you're having is because you're trying to do it to an external drive and MacOS won't allow that. You just need to run Sonoma internally and it will work.