BUILD what to replace 4x m1015's with

[marbus90]

Yep, because Highpoint really didn't have any worthwhile HBAs when I wrote the post, and nobody has "taken one for the team" and bought it and tested it thoroughly.

Yep, that still doesn't mean that a homeuser who brought this product up and listed some of the issues (which have been resolved) should be discouraged from taking one for the team. It's a home system, not some enterprise build. A home user may want to take one for the team, because he obviously is not satisfied with the heat and energy usage of 4x M1015. 2x 9201-16i wouldn't help either (and he'd need a 3rd one to use all 48 bays), they would use more energy.

So what? "works" is subjective, as you explained in your comment. It doesn't have SMART, and if someone here had 800+ posts and recommended hardware that didn't support SMART, they'd probably be squashed by 20 people laughing at the person that recommended it. Even the hardware I still have doesn't do SMART at all with smartmontools. You *have* to use the highpoint cli tool.

Read again. It supports smartctl. If not, the driver needs an update to a version with bugfixes and feature enhancements.

So you are assuming people are in the USA, have the ability to wait a week or more for a refund of $700+, will actually get the full refund, etc. I can tell you that some countries do NOT have that kind of guarantee from Amazon. Not nice to make those kinds of assumptions in a world where Amazon is not even available everywhere, doesn't offer those kinds of refunds everwhere, etc. It's totally inappropriate for *you* to assume others want to be *your* test platform with *their* money.

In the EU this is mandatory. This covers somewhere around 800 million people already. In India, China or SA even sourcing the most common parts can be quite an issue.

 

[cyberjock]

Read again. It supports smartctl. If not, the driver needs an update to a version with bugfixes and feature enhancements.

No, a single line in a driver update change log does NOT mean it supports smartctl. Highpoint sent me a controller telling me it supported smartctl, yet it didn't. When I asked about it they said they'd get back to me, then never responded to the email with what was going on, if it would ever be supported, etc.

So no, I've played Highpoint's game. I know better than to take them at their word. You should know better than to take any manufacturer at their word, and I'm not going to bother arguing it any more. I'm sure you won't be convinced and I definitely won't be convinced.

 

[subzer011]

appreciate the feedback guys! i went the upgrade route with a X10SRL-F. took cyberjock's guide advice about not using <sandy bridge hardware. this will also allow some scalability with memory. the old X8ST3-F mobo maxed out at 24GB. also picked up a noctua fan/heatsink which brought the fan count up to 8 to help move air. and with the 10 onboard sata ports, i can knock off at least one m1015. if rocket 750 ever comes down in price to ~$400, i may take the plunge. but right now it feels like too much $$$ for the uncertainty. this thread on 45drives also wasn't very encouraging... http://www.45drives.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92

 

[Doug183]

First, thanks for both cyberjock and marbus90 for hashing it out here as I have been for a long time trying to figure out the best way to have a really dense storage pod that is:

1) Reliable
2) Dense - need at least 30 drives if not 45.
3) Relatively quiet
4) Reliable
5) Somewhat affordable ~ free to $5000.
6) Preferably an off the the shelf product/s with minor hacks. (i.e. repurposing old equipment and flashing cards.)

Between my frankenstein setup I have built (3x Rackable 3601 boxes - 16 slots with expander cards - which has worked kind of reliably for two years - its throwing me CAM sense errors in patches but I have no bad data and arrays are fine), my constant research, and the 'tension' in cyberjock and marbus90 x exchange, clearly we are not there yet. Close, but not there.

I was just about to pull the trigger on a RocketRaid 750, but I saw a recent bug fix on Drive45 website (Backblaze is different then Drive45/Storinator - important to know this) makes me definitely pull the plug on that purchase as of now. I want it, but I simply do not want to spend months trouble shooting an HPT product.

At this point, I really just want a quiet Super Micro 48 JBod or server. This by far the most reliable setup, but I am afraid if I hack it, it will get expensive and just get too hot. (I am in a apartment and not a server room so it will never be constantly cold. Also why I need it quiet-ish.)

2x Norco's wouldn't be bad, but there is just so much to hack for these. First, you can only get the server boxes affordably now (The Jbods with expanders are expensive and you can't even find an empty Norco Jbod case to buy.) Then when you are all said and done, I have another hacked system and a few external cables that I simply don't know what is compatible or not. Plus you got to still build ugly fan setup up front to push air.

The Drive45 looks decent as it seems to be; quiet, cool, dense and affordable, but you have to hack the PSU to make it affordable and then there are the HBA/Expander cards. Either you go with the RocketRaid 750 or One M1051 and two Intel RES2CV240. I am not even sure this later setup will work with FreeNAS, but I think it will. This guy did something similar but not using FreeNAS. So this later meets my requirements, #2,#3,#5, and kind of #6, but fails in reliability - at least without more testing.

So one question I have: Do you think the M1015 and Intel RES2CV240 combo will work for 40 drives and FreeNAS?

Thanks
Doug

 

[Darren Myers]

i dont think this would be the quietest build, but something does exist. http://www.ebay.com/itm/6U-48-bay-S...377?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item23545b5a39

 

[Doug183]

I saw that this morning and looks interesting, but see those 3x 500 watt 1U PSU. I hear high pitch howling through the internet already.

Also, I have no idea if those Areca ARC1280ML cards will work with FreeNAS or will they drive larger than 1TB drives.

 

[Darren Myers]

Most certainly, idk if they are able to be changed out to a different version like some of the 2U and 4U chassis.