Future Expandability of SAS System

[Scharbag]

So, as my sig indicates, I have a full Norco 4220 case with both my production and backup pools housed in hot swap bays. I still have a lot of space left but I was wondering what this group's opinion would be on the best upgrade path if I want to add more drives (might not happen for a while if I instead up-size the drives one at a time).

My plan would be to connect an external SAS enclosure to the system as I have extra SAS ports available. Looking at pre-built SAS expanders with multi-bay (more than 10) hot swap capabilities seems to be pricey, running in the order of ~$2000USD for the chassis (new).

Alternatively, what are your thoughts on just using another 4220 case (20 drives is perfect for the expander that I am using, 24 would also work if I used both of my free SAS channels), PS and SAS expander? My only stumbling block with this is the power supply turn on issue, unless there is a cheap dummy board that you can install that can control the power supply. I would ensure that all pool drives were in the same chassis JIC the external cabinet does not power up with the server. Worst case would be missing pools.

What other options are out there for upgrade paths?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Cheers,

 

[depasseg]

I'd use a JBOD enclosure. Oh wait, I am using a JBOD enclosure. Just like you mentioned. Except mine is a used supermicro instead of norco. It has a small controller board in it (mainly for fan control), and it powers on separately from my server, but it's not a big deal.

My plan is to keep chaining.

I think @pclausen has a large setup like this.

 

[Ericloewe]

unless there is a cheap dummy board that you can install that can control the power supply.

Supermicro has a miniature board that provides IPMI to disk enclosures, including fan control, PSU control and monitoring (with compatible PSUs, of course), along with enclosure management services.

Or you can short the PSU's PWR_ON pin to GND.

 

[Scharbag]

I'd use a JBOD enclosure. Oh wait, I am using a JBOD enclosure. Just like you mentioned. Except mine is a used supermicro instead of norco. It has a small controller board in it (mainly for fan control), and it powers on separately from my server, but it's not a big deal.

My plan is to keep chaining. :)

I think @pclausen has a large setup like this.

What Supermicro JBOD enclosure do you use sir? Never mind, read your SIG after I posted this... sorry.

Cheers,

 

[Scharbag]

I think I may start with buying lager drives while keeping the same spindle count. I can double my backup capacity using 8TB drives and then use 4TB drive in the production array to gain ~8TB of space. Given I have 4TB free in the backup pool and 8TB free in the production pool, I am in good shape. I will address the storage once I nudge up against the 80% full level in the system. Do not really want to spend $1800 on new hard drives but you have to pay to play :)

Thank you all for the input.

Cheers,