Informational videos, mostly about SAS hardware

[Chris Moore]

Chris Moore submitted a new resource:

Informational videos, mostly about SAS hardware - SAS controllers, expanders and performance

These are some interesting YouTube videos that explain a good bit about SAS (and other things) in an easy to consume format:


Explaining the IBM SAS-2 expander and how to do 24xHDD setup with only 2-port SAS controller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qccpopxc_Uo

How to select SAS cables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW419HwU7sg

Comparing HBA IT mode SAS controllers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeFJtjVvGyc

LSI SAS2308 performance benchmarks...

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[Mannekino]

I just watched the first video about using the single HBA controller, I believe I have the same one a H200, and the expander card. Very interesting video and seems like a cool and cheap solution, he's selling them for only $40.

One thing I don't really understand, the SAS expander slots into a PCIe slot but you connect it to the HBA controller. Does it actually use the PCIe lane or is that just for power? And how can one HBA controller have enough bandwidth for 24 drives, that doesn't seem possible to me.

 

[Chris Moore]

Does it actually use the PCIe lane or is that just for power?

Just for power.

And how can one HBA controller have enough bandwidth for 24 drives, that doesn't seem possible to me.

There is another video that shows benchmarks and he talks about bandwidth, but a single HBA is able to handle 256 drives by cascading expanders, kind of like a distributed star topology in Ethernet. I have a server at work with 62 drives on one controller and 60 drives on the other and I could easily add more.

 

[Mannekino]

That's amazing, I will check out the other videos. Thanks!

 

[Chris Moore]

Chris Moore updated Informational videos, mostly about SAS hardware with a new update entry:

Dell H310 mini card update

https://youtu.be/Y1Xi5NZRlXM

Read the rest of this update entry...