24 Hard drives and X10SL7-F

[nemo1478]

So I have being doing some reading on this forum and decided I will purchase the Supermicro X10SL7-F to upgrade my FreeNAS server.

However, I'm using a Norco RPC-4224 case which as the name suggests can accommodate a maximum of 24 drives across 6 backplanes and I was wondering if the motherboard could in anyway support 24 drives if I wanted to expand in the future?

I have 8 SAS ports, 6 SATA ports and if I add a M1015 card I could get an additional 8 ports bringing me to a total of 22 drives. Am I correct here and does anyone suggest any other options to support all 24 drives?


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[Mlovelace]

IBM officially supports up to 16 drives with that card. You could connect the back planes to a SAS expander then to the M1015 card (for 16 drives).

It would be worth checking if that card can handle more drives in IT mode, btw.

 

[nemo1478]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will explore it further.


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[pirateghost]

You can connect a SAS expander to the LSI controller and add many many more disks

If you use all 8 ports of the LSI controller you can connect 2 SAS expanders and run 40 drives off just the 2 expanders

 

[nemo1478]

Wow! Seems like future expansion is no problem at all.

Thanks guys.


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[pirateghost]

Yeah. I have an Intel SAS expander and run 20 drives off 4 of the LSI ports. ;)

 

[nemo1478]

Not bad at all.


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[nemo1478]

So is this expander an actual card I plug into the motherboard or is it an adapter or splitter I plug into the M1015?





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[pirateghost]

You don't need an m1015.

It's a card that you use reverse breakout cables to connect to your controller. Then you use breakout cables from the expander to the disks

 

[nemo1478]

Oh now I understand. This keeps getting better. It's even simpler (and cheaper) than I'm thinking.


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[Ericloewe]

Many expander cards can use either a PCI-e slot for power only or a molex socket. Use only one.

 

[nemo1478]

Thanks for the info


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[Harsesis]

I would like to join the discussion: Are there commonly used joices for effordable expanders? How much do they usally cost?

 

[Darren Myers]

People use these http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Intel-R...pander-Card-/272000225348?hash=item3f547a1044 often, if you have a M1015 or 9211-8i youd connect 1 SAS cable to the expander, and then from the expander connect to either backplane SAS connections or use SAS to SATA break out cables, youd have 20 hdds connected to the expander and the final 4 from the other SAS port on your M1015/9211-8i card while using either the SAS cable or SAS to SATA breakout cabling.

 

[Harsesis]

Ok thank you very much! I'm using the same board with a very similar case from Inter-Tech (same company other name i guess?) with 20 drives, but I'm using 12 sas/sata ports from the board with an additional m1015 for 8 more connections.

I guess for me this is still the better option as I already had the m1015 laying arround and the expanders seem to be quite expensive as well... :D

 

[pirateghost]

I paid 120 for 2 of those Intel expanders.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I paid 120 for 2 of those Intel expanders.

Yep. Don't assume the listed "buy it now" price is firm. Most people aren't paying more than USD$75 for single units, and as @pirateghost illustrated you can go cheaper if you buy in quantity.

 

[Harsesis]

That sounds much better! You are both talking about new hardware?