Looking To Expand SATA Ports

[Chris Dill]

Here is my system:

OS: FreeNAS-11.2-BETA2
CPU: Intel E3-1220v3 3.1GHz/8M/5GTs LGA1150 Xeon
MOBO: SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O
RAM: 32 GB - 4X HYNIX 8GB 2RX8 PC3-12800E
HDD: 5x 3TB WD Red RAIDZ2
CASE: Fractal Design Define R4 Artic White Case

I have 5 HDD in a RAIDz2, which occupies all of the SATA ports on the motherboard.

Anyone have an opinion on a SATA expansion card to use? Or anyone use the one below with success?

I was thinking of using a AOC-S2308L-L8i from this motherboard support page.

 

[m0nkey_]

Check the hardware recommendations guide under "Additional SATA/SAS connectivity".

 

[Chris Dill]

Check the hardware recommendations guide under "Additional SATA/SAS connectivity".

Thanks for that, I looked it over and still have a few questions.

Finding compatibility with my older mobo isn't easy- I did find this thread: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/error-when-attempting-to-flash-9211-8i-card.59506/ but not sure it shows a resolution.

I am basically looking for something I can plug and play without having to do any three-days-spent-rebuilding-super-custom, and perhaps someone has experience and might throw in a personal note or two beyond just the hardware spec?

 

[Chris Moore]

Finding compatibility with my older mobo isn't easy-

Don't worry so much about compatibility with the motherboard. The important thing is compatibility with FreeNAS and if we are suggesting it, it is most likely because we have experience with it.

Finding compatibility with my older mobo isn't easy-

Your board is not that old.
This is what you need:

Drive Controller: SAS PCI-E 3.0 HBA LSI 9207-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID - - US $69.55
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162862201664

Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. I would suggest putting all your drives on the SAS controller, just so all the drives on a single controller. It works better that way. One SAS controller like this can run up to 256 drives by use of expander controllers like this:

SAS Expander: IBM (46m0997) ServeRAID Expansion Adapter 16-port SAS Expander - - US $15.88
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192326557905

SAS interconnect: Mini SAS SFF-8087 to Mini SAS SFF-8087 - - US $3.49
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183129085895

I use two of those in my 24 bay chassis.