Popular enterprise direct attached storage enclosures

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

bilbo1337

Member
Sep 18, 2020
79
45
18
Florida
Can somebody help out on the options available for enterprise grade storage arrays? I figure that xyratex, synology, and netapp are the most popular options. Ideally it'd be popular for EOL options down the line..
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Actually two units, but in fact currently there is a queue for them :oops:

But yes, they are nice units, there are various HGST models on the market.
IBM/Dell/HPE have their own o/c,
totally depends on how many drives you're looking to slot...
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
But that is not enterprise grade.

Enterprise is about guaranteed functionality with a certain limited amount of parts that have been scrutinized and tested.

Why would WD (or IBM or HPE) allow cheap third party drives in their expensive arrays? They want to make cash with those, and part of that cash flow is drives (with optimized /tested firmware in the best case).

Even Synology is now doing the same with their newest Enterprise arrays...


If you want flexibility you have to get something that is not locked in but for that very reason not optimized either.
 

bilbo1337

Member
Sep 18, 2020
79
45
18
Florida
Well when support ends it'd be nice to use other hardware.. it can still be enterprise grade, you mentioned HPE but they allow third-party hardware in a lot of their systems.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Do they?
I dont use them much, but I remember fans going at 100% when you slot the wrong HBA or NIC...
 

ari2asem

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
745
128
43
The Netherlands, Groningen
I'm hearing a lot of talk about HGST DAS enclosures lately. Personally I love my Lenovo SA120's, although I understand these have now been updated by another model..?
in my opinion is gen 1 of hgst 4u60 is the best. why ? because gen 1 is much more quiete than gen 2.
i dont have experience with gen 3 of hgst ( but now wd) 4u60.

disadvantage of gen 1 is that you need qsfp cables, which are not so common. therefore more expensive than sff-8644 cables used in gen 2 or gen 3

gen 1 of hgst 4u60 up to specific firmware version accepts also hdd of another brand than wd or hgst.

check with @Rand__ for more info....he has gen1 unit which accepts any brand hdd
 

ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
506
70
28
45
London
BTW, one of my SA120's has two SAS controllers, and I'm quite interested in experimenting with maintaining HA on the JBOD while swapping the two active/passive servers/controllers. Apparently this is a LOT harder than it sounds. I understand that it's intended for swinging database servers with zero downtime. Sounds like the kind of thing that you entrust only to one of your most seriously expert storage engineers. There is this: ewwhite/zfs-ha but I'm sure that ZoL isn't mandatory.
 

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,257
1,447
113
49
HSV and SFO
Dell and HP make some DAS units and the older ones are pretty easy to get your hands on even though the drive count is usually limited to 12 or so 3.5".
 

jabuzzard

Member
Mar 22, 2021
45
18
8
Why would WD (or IBM or HPE) allow cheap third party drives in their expensive arrays? They want to make cash with those, and part of that cash flow is drives (with optimized /tested firmware in the best case).
What are these cheap SAS drives you are talking about? Reality is it's just money grabbing, there is no such thing as a cheap none enterprise SAS drive. In fact the drive almost certainly is OEM'd from one of the now very small number of drive manufactures left, with "magic" firmware that changes the drive string it reports so that the exact same model of drive, but stock from the manufacture does not work.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Yes, but the original firmware accepted shucked Best Buy drives ... I was not talking about SAS Enterprise drives only - but basically all drives...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir and T_Minus

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
What are these cheap SAS drives you are talking about? Reality is it's just money grabbing, there is no such thing as a cheap none enterprise SAS drive. In fact the drive almost certainly is OEM'd from one of the now very small number of drive manufactures left, with "magic" firmware that changes the drive string it reports so that the exact same model of drive, but stock from the manufacture does not work.
Kind-of missed the point. You're right, it's the same drive with custom firmware. However they charge (example) say $700 for a drive that would be $350 "retail" and not their special firmware. That's the cheap third party drive I believe @Rand__ was referring
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir

gtcdma

New Member
Oct 29, 2020
21
8
3
Netapp DS4243/DS4246
Dell MD1200
Dell Xyratex HB-1235
EMC KNT-STL3

All of them are not drive-locked and will work with any SAS or SATA drives (or a mix of both), including the BestBuy shucked ones.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: bilbo1337 and Samir