BUILD Cards needed to attach disk enclosure to FreeNas server?

[STORMComponents]

I'm new to FreeNAS and would really appreciate some advice. I've tried searching for this but can't find the basics needed to make sense of a lot what comes up in my searches.

Basically I have a refurb DL360 server I want to use as a FreeNAS box. It's got 12GB RAM and a quad core, so it should handle my data without issues. It's only got space for 2.5" drives however, which are very expensive when looking at 1TB / 2TB options.

Because of this, I'm looking to have another enclosure with maybe up to 10x 2TB 3.5" discs in it, which will then hopefully be controlled by the DL360.

I'm simply unsure how to link the two. I've looked at Fibre cards, but don't really know what I'm looking for.

What is the simplest way to have the drives in the enclosure machine show up on FreeNAS?

 

[Ericloewe]

Simplest solution is:

HBA -> external SAS cable -> SAS expander -> drives

If you want more help, it would be a good idea to tell us more about that server of yours.

 

[STORMComponents]

Thanks for your reply.

The server is this one here. It was a reasonable price for 12GB RAM and quad core, so I snatched it up. Originally I was going to put 6x 2TB 2.5" drives in there but it's damn expensive to do so compared to 3.5" drives, hence what I'm asking you here.

Ideally I'd have an enclosure with a max of around 10x 3.5" drives, even if I don't populate them all right away. Can you give any suggestions on what HBAs and expanders are suitable for this?
I'm looking for reasonable transfer rates but it's mostly just cold storage, media and such going on there - nothing that needs GB/s transfers.

I'm on a bit of a budget, so I'd prefer not spending £200 on SAS cards etc - for that I might as well just buy the 2.5" drives for this server ;).

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

[STORMComponents]

After looking about, what are your thoughts on something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lycom-ST-...Components_InterfaceCards&hash=item1c3f8a2826

If I were to have that in both my disk enclosure plus server, would I be able to use the server's SAS controller to run 8x SATA in the enclosure?

8x disks > 8 SATA to 2 SAS cable > adapter > external cables > adapter >server's SAS controller?

 

[Ericloewe]

There's a catch - SATA signalling is limited to 1m (a bit more with external cabling, but the various adapters eat up some of the gains), which means you'd ideally want an SAS device on both ends of the external cabling (SAS allows for longer cables) - that's why I suggested the expander. It's there more for signalling reasons rather than serving as an expander.

 

[STORMComponents]

Ahh got you. Good to know. I've spent years and years building computers but have never once had to look up how far SATA signals are actually suitable for as the biggest cases I've come across can look tidy with .6m cables.
Would the adapter work if it were only in the enclosure, so SATA goes from drives just to the back of the case, then it's SAS from there on out?

 

[Ericloewe]

Let me explain how it would work:

The SAS controller in your server talks to the SAS expander inside the storage enclosure using SAS signalling and SAS cabling (which was designed for this sort of scenario). The SAS expander then talks to the individual drives sitting next to it, using SATA signalling if they're SATA drives.

Please note I'm assuming the SAS controller will be fine with the additional latency even with SATA drives, as it was designed to handle more complicated scenarios than SATA. SAS drives would certainly not be a problem, even without the expander, as the entire chain was designed around this case.

Additionally, there's a catch: SAS expanders aren't very cheap. The Intel RES2SV240 is a popular model around here, but it's 250ish bucks. If you do go this route, you can easily run 16/20 drives off the expander in your disk enclosure (you can run one or two cables, with four channels each, to the expander and the remaining ports will be available for disks), so it's an attractive option if you plan on using a lot of drives.

Also, and more importantly, none of the possible SAS controllers listed by HP sounds like a good choice for ZFS. They all look like complicated RAID controllers. Ideally, you want something that just lets the OS do everything with the drives, essentially a simple HBA. That said, if they support JBOD, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and are stable under FreeNAS, they should have no problem on the disk side of the equation. The problem might be FreeNAS, and you'll have to figure out what card is installed and what chip it uses so that we can recommend a course of action.

 

[krikboh]

This is my plan for expanding my storage when need arises and the 8 bay tower with expander I've looked at is $400 and the card is $350. Just wanted to give you an idea of costs. Of course you could reduce the cost by purchasing used.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[STORMComponents]

I think for now, I may have to put this form of storage on hold. For the £200-300 I'd need to spend in cards and cables to get an external enclosure working, I could fill this server with 1TB disks and run like 5TB or something for my media. Not much I know, but later down the line I could buy another PCI-X controller for this server and THEN run through the enclosure.

I think for the storage I need, external enclosures look to be too expensive :(

 

[Ericloewe]

I think for now, I may have to put this form of storage on hold. For the £200-300 I'd need to spend in cards and cables to get an external enclosure working, I could fill this server with 1TB disks and run like 5TB or something for my media. Not much I know, but later down the line I could buy another PCI-X controller for this server and THEN run through the enclosure.

I think for the storage I need, external enclosures look to be too expensive :(

Please note that PCI-X and PCI-e[xpress] are completely different, incompatible interfaces.

 

[STORMComponents]

I'm aware, and have both.