DIY DAS/NAS chassis based on 5x3.5" drive cages?

[chinesestunna]

Disclaimer: This is not a "why not just buy XYZ chassis that would fit your needs" thread, it's more of a hack/fun experiment and potentially lower power bills

Current setup (125W with drives spun down, 190W drives running):

• Supermicro X9 C602 with 1x E5-2670 Xeon + 64GB RAM
• ESXi 6.7 hypervisor
• NAS + Plex Linux VM: LSI 2008 SAS2 controller + SAS expander passed through 10x3TB LFF in RAID6, held in 2 3x5.25-> 5x3.5" Supermicro drive cages
• a couple Windows VMs for remote work/testing

This is a setup I've been running reliably for past few years and it's served my needs well.

With recent changes in VMWare situation and general evolution of hardware, I've re-evaluated my needs and want to try a Tiny/Mini/Micro cluster for compute and a node running the NAS. Essentially something like Dell 5070 Extended (<20W all in) with a PCIe SAS controller with 2 external SAS ports plugged into a "DAS chassis" that would hold the drives.
I have 6x8TB SAS drives being added with 2 more 3x5.25-> 5x3.5" drive cages, what I'd like to do is design/build a chassis that would allow me to use all 4 drive cages (20 LFF capacity), provide power and strap in the SAS expander if possible. First thought is just super barebones and stack the cages in a 2x2 cube and wire PSU to them.

Curious if anyone in the community has considered/seen/done something silly like this and share your thoughts?

 

[labxplore]

Did something similar: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-client-mini-server.29242/page-34#post-409134

 

[chinesestunna]

Did something similar: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-client-mini-server.29242/page-34#post-409134

Awesome! How do you trigger power on for the drive array in the old case/drive cages?

 

[labxplore]

Awesome! How do you trigger power on for the drive array in the old case/drive cages?

With a ATX jumper + switch like this one:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804716716493.html

 

[chinesestunna]

With a ATX jumper + switch like this one:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804716716493.html

Read through your posts in in the 5070 thread, would love to see photos of your build and a write up if possible I'm currently leaning towards a cheap small rolling file cabinet, something like this and holding the drive cages in bottom drawer while top drawers would hold the compute nodes. This project is getting more complicated by the day but I'm enjoying the design/throught experiments.

 

[labxplore]

Nothing "picture-worthy" yet - all pieces are spread around a closet shelf
I should do a write up once I make a few additional changes on my to-do list:

• install 2 additional HDDs (for a total of 6 for now, 8 later) on a separate 4-drive cage
• integrate a fan controller/temperature probe for variable fan speed for both drive cages and the wyse top fan
• power the wyse (step-up from 12v to 19.5v + Dell IC) and all fans (12v) from the same PSU as the drives.
• "cable management" = put it all nicely together to fit on a rack shelf

 

[chinesestunna]

power the wyse (step-up from 12v to 19.5v + Dell IC) and all fans (12v) from the same PSU as the drives.

This would be awesome, I was looking into it a bit more as well and Dell's adapters seems to require a basic serial protocol to correctly emulate the native brick. I'm thinking about also have a UPS added to one of the "shelves" and with the number of outlets not as concerned about Wyse and compute nodes running off of their individual bricks

 

[labxplore]

This would be awesome, I was looking into it a bit more as well and Dell's adapters seems to require a basic serial protocol to correctly emulate the native brick. I'm thinking about also have a UPS added to one of the "shelves" and with the number of outlets not as concerned about Wyse and compute nodes running off of their individual bricks

From what I've found so far you can buy a DS2501 programmed to emulate the 65W/90W or 130W charger, or sourced from an actual Dell charger.
I haven't been able to start this project yet but if you have time available, here are some references:

Hardware fix for Dell “AC power adapter could not be determined”

My old but good Dell Latitude E6410 notebook stopped charging and working with the original Dell AC power adapter some months ago. It was working only sporadic but in most of the cases...

web.archive.org

Get rid of the DELL charger not recognized limitation

Transfer the identification chip from the charger to the computer so any valid chargers could be used.

medium.com