Low-Profile SATA Expansion Recommendation

[ss4johnny]

I have one 4 port SYBAUSA SATA PCI express expansion card installed in my machine. Unfortunately in the low profile chassis, two of the ports are effectively un-usable. So, I thought I'd be clever and just get two more 2 port cards (SI-PEX40075). One to cover the blocked one and one for future expansion. I didn't pay enough attention to the hardware recommendations and can't seem to get these working with FreeNAS. So I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions on low-profile SATA expansion cards.

I saw the recommendation in the sticky'ed thread about the IBM ServeRAID card, but I am thinking that I don't need something that heavy duty.

 

[Ericloewe]

I saw the recommendation in the sticky'ed thread about the IBM ServeRAID card, but I am thinking that I don't need something that heavy duty.

You do, if you want something reliable. Unfortunately, no SATA PCI-e controller is worth its title.

 

[ss4johnny]

Hmm, okay. I guess I'll get one then...

I had looked at the manual for that before posting this thread. I was confused by Section 2.4.1 in the manual where it describes how to connect the drive to the board. It looks like the cable has a power component. However, my chassis has a backplane that handles the power connections. Does that matter?

 

[Ericloewe]

Hmm, okay. I guess I'll get one then...

I had looked at the manual for that before posting this thread. I was confused by Section 2.4.1 in the manual where it describes how to connect the drive to the board. It looks like the cable has a power component. However, my chassis has a backplane that handles the power connections. Does that matter?

Power? No. There are cables with data and power on a single monolithic connector instead of two small ones, but that's just one possibility. Assuming your backplane takes single SATA connections, just get an SFF-8087 breakout cable (or two, depending on your needs.

Also, pay attention to the positioning of the SFF -8087 connectors on the card - common varieties are on the edge opposite the motherboard (M1015, for instance) and on the edge opposite the chassis back panel (LSI SAS 9211, for instance).

 

[ss4johnny]

Thanks. Edge opposite the motherboard is a problem on my other card.

 

[marbus90]

If your low profile chassis wouldn't work with the M1015, look into LSI 9211-8i, AOC-S2308L-L8e, LSI 9207-8i.

If you have a 12bay chassis, you might also look into swapping the mobo for a X10SL7-F or comparable with a SAS 6Gbps controller onboard.

Further questions about SAS are answered in the SAS Primer.

 

[ss4johnny]

I've got enough SATA drives at this point that it would be pretty expensive to replace them with SAS.

 

[marbus90]

@ss4johnny: Read the SAS Primer.

 

[ss4johnny]

Okay. I see that now.

A separate question: is there anything preventing you from mixing SAS and SATA drives in a ZFS pool?

 

[Ericloewe]

Okay. I see that now.

A separate question: is there anything preventing you from mixing SAS and SATA drives in a ZFS pool?

No specific concerns, but wildly different drives in a pool may lead to unusual situations that may make you go "huh?". Probably harmless, though.