Do adapters like this actually work and are they reliable?

[Matibus08]

I have been reading a bit about sata to m.2 adapters like this one, but are these things actually reliable to use in a Nas with ZFS. I've seen a lot of positive reviews, but I can't believe you can just get more sata slots by plugging in an adapter in the m.2 slot. If this isn't a viable solution, what do you recommend for a Truenas build with eight sata drives?

 

[danb35]

If this isn't a viable solution, what do you recommend for a Truenas build with eight sata drives?

Your link doesn't work, so I can only guess at what you're referring to. But in general, SATA expansion cards, particularly those with multiple ports, are sketchy at best.

So to your question, you've read the hardware recommendations guide, right? Because it would answer this question pretty well--it's in the Resources section if you haven't. Recent server chipsets should give you eight SATA ports. Otherwise, the only recommended way to add SATA ports is to use a LSI/Broadcom/Avago SAS HBA.

 

[jgreco]

I have been reading a bit about sata to m.2 adapters like this one, but are these things actually reliable to use in a Nas with ZFS.

That's an ASMedia 1166 based controller. Unlike some of the other dodgy AHCI SATA controllers out there, this one appears to have been relatively stable for use with TrueNAS. However, it only have PCIe 3 x2 upstream (approx. 2GBytes/sec) so this is only useful for hard drives, not SSD's.

Non-Intel SATA controllers may or may not properly detect disk failures or hotswap events and it is still recommended to use a proper HBA rather than rely on a dodgy third-party controller, especially one mounted on an M.2 card.

The cabling issues are worrying as well.

 

[Matibus08]

Your link doesn't work, so I can only guess at what you're referring to. But in general, SATA expansion cards, particularly those with multiple ports, are sketchy at best.

So to your question, you've read the hardware recommendations guide, right? Because it would answer this question pretty well--it's in the Resources section if you haven't. Recent server chipsets should give you eight SATA ports. Otherwise, the only recommended way to add SATA ports is to use a LSI/Broadcom/Avago SAS HBA.

Yeah I read that, that's why I thought it would be really unreliable, but I had seen a lot of good reviews so I still wanted to ask.

 

[Matibus08]

That's an ASMedia 1166 based controller. Unlike some of the other dodgy AHCI SATA controllers out there, this one appears to have been relatively stable for use with TrueNAS. However, it only have PCIe 3 x2 upstream (approx. 2GBytes/sec) so this is only useful for hard drives, not SSD's.

Non-Intel SATA controllers may or may not properly detect disk failures or hotswap events and it is still recommended to use a proper HBA rather than rely on a dodgy third-party controller, especially one mounted on an M.2 card.

The cabling issues are worrying as well.

Thanks a lot for your response, it would be used for hard drives, but I won't use because I like to keep my data safe

 

[jgreco]

Yeah I read that, that's why I thought it would be really unreliable, but I had seen a lot of good reviews so I still wanted to ask.

A healthy skepticism is a good thing. There are lots of people who add "mass storage" to their desktop PC, and for Windows, where you are not doing lots of I/O to lots of disks simultaneously, something like a SATA port multiplier or other creative way to attach disks may be helpful. However, ZFS is cruel and harsh to its I/O devices and controllers, and corruption is an evil thing, so it is much better to let those kinds of devices remain for the Windows users and instead use a really high quality controller for ZFS.