Have you ever seen a Qlogic QLE2562-WB with a 8644?

[sfcredfox]

Just curious:

Anyone ever seen or used a Qlogic QLE2562-WB PX2810403-43 8GB Dual Port FC HBA W/ SAS Expander 2X 8GB SFP? I saw it while hunting around ebay for scraps to test Scale on a DL380G8.

I can't find any documentation for this anymore, so I am just curious if you've ever run across something like it? They use the term SAS expander, it's a 12G / 8644 connector?

View attachment qlogic-qle2562-wb-dual-port-8gb-pcie-x8-fc-server-adapter-px2810403-43-g-sas-expander.webp

Qlogic QLE2562-WB PX2810403-43 8GB Dual Port FC HBA W/ SAS Expander 2X 8GB SFP | eBay

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My Purpose:
I was thinking about using it to connect some old SAS2 expander backplanes (8644 to 8088) in the future without having to use another slot. **Edit: Sorry, that would be in addition to using the FC ports for frontend connection to existing fabric.

I know there's some people who have used the 2562 I think? @moldof
@jgreco @Chris Moore

I've been using F/TN Core doing FC for a super long time, was just going to test if Scale can do it. Not even sure if you can install targetcli. https://acksyn.org/posts/2013/05/building-your-own-san-with-linux/

Everyone else has moved onto 10gb, but I'm living a little in the past.

 

[jgreco]

It's ~~garbage.

It's an 8Gbps fiber channel HBA. It only has potential use as a FC target for SAN style usage; trying to use it in an initiator role to run disk shelves for a ZFS pool over fiber channel is likely to result in crushing I/O towards the FC arrays, especially during scrubs or rebuilds. Don't do that. Some people have had luck making FreeNAS serve as a FC SAN target, and I would imagine that it does so reasonably well if you don't mind some hackery.

The little paddleboard is definitely absolutely NOT an "SAS Expander" but might make a nifty trinket for your keychain. It is a paddleboard that appears to transform an SFF-8088 (6Gbps) 4 lane cable to an SFF-8644 (12Gbps) external 4 lane cable. I can't picture this as generally useful. Best guess is some specific server had an internal SFF-8087 that could be brought out to be shared on that PCIe blank.

 

[sfcredfox]

It's ~~garbage.

Ha, I expected that response! :)

It only has potential use as a FC target for SAN style usage

That was my plan. Just old school front end to connect TN Scale to a 15+ year old 4gbps FC Switch. It's super cool it still works.

absolutely NOT an "SAS Expander"

Best guess is some specific server had an internal SFF-8087 that could be brought out to be shared on that PCIe blank.

This was my thinking too. I was just thinking it would save a slot to change from an internal to external connection. Just never saw a vender prebuild that. Maybe 12G SAS was in the same era as 8bgps FC?

 

[jgreco]

This was my thinking too. I was just thinking it would save a slot to change from an internal to external connection. Just never saw a vender prebuild that. Maybe 12G SAS was in the same era as 8bgps FC?

My guess: Some vendor had a 1U, which would typically have somewhere between two and four slots, typically with the third and fourth slots being low profile. Supermicro's WIO/UIO chassis are typically two full plus a low profile.

SYS-510T-WTR | 1U | SuperServer | Products | Supermicro

X12 Cloud solution. Virtualization. Single Socket H5 (LGA-1200) supports Intel Xeon E-2300 series, 10th Gen. Pentium Processors. Memory Capacity: 4 DIMM slots

www.supermicro.com

So the thing to note is that if you have an onboard SAS from SCU on the PCH, you might want to expose that for maybe an external tape drive or something like that? I'm just sorta trying to puzzle it out. I could picture 1U hypervisors with the FC for SAN storage and then the SCU exposed via SFF-8644. Because you wouldn't want to consume an entire PCIe slot for an 8644 slot blank, ... plausible, I guess.

 

[sfcredfox]

My guess: Some vendor had a 1U, which would typically have somewhere between two and four slots, typically with the third and fourth slots being low profile. Supermicro's WIO/UIO chassis are typically two full plus a low profile.

SYS-510T-WTR | 1U | SuperServer | Products | Supermicro

X12 Cloud solution. Virtualization. Single Socket H5 (LGA-1200) supports Intel Xeon E-2300 series, 10th Gen. Pentium Processors. Memory Capacity: 4 DIMM slots

www.supermicro.com

So the thing to note is that if you have an onboard SAS from SCU on the PCH, you might want to expose that for maybe an external tape drive or something like that? I'm just sorta trying to puzzle it out. I could picture 1U hypervisors with the FC for SAN storage and then the SCU exposed via SFF-8644. Because you wouldn't want to consume an entire PCIe slot for an 8644 slot blank, ... plausible, I guess.

Well, it's $13 now, so I might play around with it. I'm going to see if I can run a few commands against scale and see if it lists any drivers for QLE25xx.

I was thinking along the same lines are you also. I have a Supermicro 829 with a X8 board, and a Supermicro 815 like the one pictured, but with boards from the 2009 time frame. My play stuff is so ebay old, I have to deal with HP/Dell integrated RAID (fake) stuff. I haven't looked into any new age sweet enterprise gear lately.

Back to making people question why I just don't move on and use 10ge like the rest of the world...