SAS backplane to SATA motherboard?

[NewishToFreenas]

I got a good deal on a used supermicro CSE-836 case, with the BPN-SAS2-836EL1 backplane, off my local craigslist. My drives are all SATA, and the best options I have available to me for motherboards all seem to be SATA.

From my understanding, I shouldn't have a problem plugging my drives into the hot swap bays, or the backplane, but the backplane cannot directly interface with a SATA motherboard? The amount of options is a bit overwhelming. Should I be looking for a motherboard that supports SAS(options seem limited), a new backplane(seems difficult to find), or will I be fine with a PCIE SAS card? Is there a significant performance difference in these options, or a preferred manufacturer or model for the preferred option?

 

[jgreco]

Please take a look at the SAS Primer.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

The short answer is that if you have an expander backplane, the connection from it to the host system MUST be SAS, so you need an HBA to do that bit, and then you can toss SATA drives in the bays. Please read the primer for the answers the questions that my terse summary here probably raises.

 

[NewishToFreenas]

Thank you very much, I'll read that now.

 

[rigel]

Please take a look at the SAS Primer.

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/

The short answer is that if you have an expander backplane, the connection from it to the host system MUST be SAS, so you need an HBA to do that bit, and then you can toss SATA drives in the bays. Please read the primer for the answers the questions that my terse summary here probably raises.

Sorry for thread hijacking, but it feels like somewhat relevant and I cannot post in the linked post. Please can someone help me?

I have a motherboard with (3) Mini HD SFF-8643 ports for (12) SATA ports:

then I have a server chassis with 12Gb Mini HD SGPIO BP backplane also called sometimes as 12 Gb/s Mini-SAS HD SFF-8643 + SGPIO, for example:

might look like this:

It is definitely not an expander backplane. Still don't know what is SGPIO though. Does it mean same as HBA?

Having this setup, will I be able to successfully connect SAS drives to this backplane, even if my motherboard's Mini HD SFF-8643 ports are SATA only? Will there be any limitations? Or I will be only be able to use SATA drives here?

 

[Ericloewe]

Still don't know what is SGPIO though.

Serial General-Purpose I/O, for the lights and stuff. Generally not super relevant, if at all relevant.

Having this setup, will I be able to successfully connect SAS drives to this backplane, even if my motherboard's Mini HD SFF-8643 ports are SATA only?

No. SAS disks require SAS controllers. The backplane is just a bunch of wires, it can't magically make a SATA controller speak SAS.

Or I will be only be able to use SATA drives here?

Correct.

 

[Ericloewe]

then I have a server chassis with 12Gb Mini HD SGPIO BP backplane also called sometimes as 12 Gb/s Mini-SAS HD SFF-8643 + SGPIO, for example:

Sidenote: "Country of origin: US / Ships from China". What else are they lying about?

 

[rigel]

Serial General-Purpose I/O, for the lights and stuff. Generally not super relevant, if at all relevant.

No. SAS disks require SAS controllers. The backplane is just a bunch of wires, it can't magically make a SATA controller speak SAS.

Correct.

Thank you so much for your answer! Guess I need either to buy SATA drives now or buy an SAS HBA card.