HBA shared with disk/tape drive

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jahsoul

Active Member
Dec 13, 2013
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War Eagle Country
From everything that I've read, it looks as though this isn't recommended but I can never find a reason why, but is it possible to run a tape drive/storage disk on the same LSI storage controller (1 port for storage and another for tape) and if so, are there any drawbacks to doing so?
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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In the absolute ultimate performance setup the issue is the tape drive will be doing massive sequential I/O while the disks have a completely different workload and that can cause just the controller to be busy or contention at the bus possibly.

Never should run on an expander, bus resets are evil in this case, of course if it’s a separate channel should not be any issue in a home lab or regular situation.
 
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jahsoul

Active Member
Dec 13, 2013
262
34
28
War Eagle Country
In the absolute ultimate performance setup the issue is the tape drive will be doing massive sequential I/O while the disks have a completely different workload and that can cause just the controller to be busy or contention at the bus possibly.

Never should run on an expander, bus resets are evil in this case, of course if it’s a separate channel should not be any issue in a home lab or regular situation.
Thanks for the info!! In my quest to finally get my home setup together, I've been debating between how to set up a local backup server and if I should reuse an 1150 mini itx board I was repurposing (current Sophos box) or the E5-2630Lv4/X10SRI combo that I had laying around that isn't being used for anything. I felt that a 10 core processor was overkill for this purposse for a box that will only be used to sync and backup files once a week and then off the rest of this time.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Well if it’s powered off when not in use then the power consumption is not an issue so then if you have it may as well use it for as long as it’s usable.