BUILD Simple cheap SAS controller just for reading SMART data (testing)

[n8lbv]

I'm looking for suggestions on the best way to be able to test SAS drive particularly READ the SMART data on the SAS drives.
I'm not really particular if it's widows or linux or FreeNAS just to be able to read them.
But am looking for suggestions on hardware just to plug SAS drives in, boot up and look at the SMART Data.
My (limited) experience with SAS drives is them being in servers behind RAID controllers that mask or hide or just flat out don't let you
easily view the SMART data like you can pretty easily do it with SATA drives and common well know utilities.
I also don't even know if SMART data is generally available on SAS drives like it is on common SATA drives abd do venders
Force you to have to use their specific utilities (if they even exist) to both access and interpret the SMART data.

Thanks!

 

[Ericloewe]

I also don't even know if SMART data is generally available on SAS drives

It is, but structured differently.

Realistically, the same advice as always applies: LSI HBAs. You can fairly easily find cheap HBAs or crossflashed RAID cards that use the SAS2008 controller. I doubt you'll find cheaper SAS2 or SAS3. Note that LSI SAS 1 controllers do not support LBAs beyond 32 bits and disks cannot be accessed beyond 2.2ish TB.

 

[n8lbv]

Thanks!
I may have access to something that will work.
OR should be able to ebay something.

 

[jgreco]

I also don't even know if SMART data is generally available on SAS drives like it is on common SATA drives abd do venders
Force you to have to use their specific utilities (if they even exist) to both access and interpret the SMART data.

SMART is really an ATA (PATA, SATA) thing. It is defined as part of the AT Attachment standard. SAS is a derivative of SCSI, which had a completely different system for stats, and predated ATA by many years. Some SMART-like stats may be available from some modern SCSI/SAS drives, but as you note, you may need to use a vendor-provided utility or interpret mode page tea leaves to access the information.

Recently discussed at

https://www.ixsystems.com/community...ot-displayed-for-sas-drives.60930/post-532561

It is

Tsk tsk I would have expected you to know better. ;-) ;-)