Mirfster
Doesn't know what he's talking about
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2015
- Messages
- 3,215
So, been experimenting with expanding using JBODs. Was working fine when I had two separate LSI 9200-8e cards. I then decided why not try to condense this to one LSI 9201-16e?
For the record all Servers are the same, Dell C2100/FS12-TY and they each have a SAS2 Expander Backplane.
Server 1
Currently is running ESXi 6.0 U2 and FreeNAS as a VM with the cards in "Pass-Through". Issue is not with ESXi as I can see that all the drives are not being detected in the SAS BIOS. If the whole "Virtualization is not supported" excuse is tossed my way, then I don't buy it but feel free to use it if you want... :P
This Server has three (3) HBAs (Dell Mezzanine Perc H200 - Flashed to LSI 9211-8i, LSI 9200-8e and LSI 9201-16e). While the Perc H200 is at P20.04, the other two are at P20.07.
Server 2 & 3
JBODs have the SAS2 Expander Backplanes connected to a Mini-SAS to Mini-SAS (SFF-8087 to SFF-8087) and then are connected to the external HBAs on Server 1 via SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 cables (think 1m or 1.5m..).
So when I connect all the JBODs to just the LSI 9201-16e, it fails to see all the disks in my JBODs. However, if I split up the JBODs to the separate HBAs then things are fine...
For the record all Servers are the same, Dell C2100/FS12-TY and they each have a SAS2 Expander Backplane.
Server 1
Currently is running ESXi 6.0 U2 and FreeNAS as a VM with the cards in "Pass-Through". Issue is not with ESXi as I can see that all the drives are not being detected in the SAS BIOS. If the whole "Virtualization is not supported" excuse is tossed my way, then I don't buy it but feel free to use it if you want... :P
This Server has three (3) HBAs (Dell Mezzanine Perc H200 - Flashed to LSI 9211-8i, LSI 9200-8e and LSI 9201-16e). While the Perc H200 is at P20.04, the other two are at P20.07.
Server 2 & 3
JBODs have the SAS2 Expander Backplanes connected to a Mini-SAS to Mini-SAS (SFF-8087 to SFF-8087) and then are connected to the external HBAs on Server 1 via SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 cables (think 1m or 1.5m..).
So when I connect all the JBODs to just the LSI 9201-16e, it fails to see all the disks in my JBODs. However, if I split up the JBODs to the separate HBAs then things are fine...
- Is there something I am doing wrong or is this a limitation of some sort I am hitting and not understanding?
- Do I need to check into "Active" vs "Passive" SFF-8088 cables (just saw some brief info but did not delve into it much)?
- Could the issue be that one JBOD has all SAS Drives while the other has SATA Drives?
- If so then I can live with that, but am looking to perhaps attach a 3rd all SATA JBOD and would wonder if just those two would be fine on one HBA then?
- While I have two SFF-8088 connections going to each JBOD, I would think that I can get away with just one or perhaps even look into "Daisy Chaining" or "Cascading" (not too sure on this though, just want to get this part figured out)
- Would however love to eventually connect all to a single HBA if that is feasible...