2U 24 bay Supermicro CSE-216 SAS2 chassis - $225

[hd2012]

Direct connection like Supermicro A or TQ models. SAS Expander is great for hard drives, but horrible for SSD's.

So can you even externally DAS a TQ backplane?

 

[Aestr]

Hi Aestr, can you confirm if this comes with the inner/outer rails and the model number of this chassis?

Based on them having the following...

-BPN-SAS2-216EL1 backplane
-2x 1200w power supplies
-7x low profile I/O slots

...it looks like these may be the SC216E16-R1200LPB version.

Supermicro | Products | Chassis | 2U | SC216E16-R1200LPB

It comes with complete (inner and outer) rails. I didn't check for the model on the sticker, but for all intents and purposes it's an SC216E16-R1200LPB. 2 of the 3 systems included the air shroud which was a bonus.

 

[JayG30]

So can you even externally DAS a TQ backplane?

Can't say I've personally seen a TQ chassis used as a DAS enclosure before, but I would think it was possible. You would use SFF-8087 forward (not reverse in this case) breakout cables (4 SAS/SATA connectors to 1 SFF-8087 connector) connected to an adapter that went from SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 (external 8087 connection).
Breakout cable + 8087 to 8088 adapter

Supermicro makes prebuilt cables that go from 8087 to 8088 attached to a PCI bracket and what you will typically find in their JBOD chassis. But with a TQ that wouldn't work. And I'm not sure there is a prebuilt single cable that goes from 4 SATA/SAS ports into an SFF-8088 connection without an adapter.

The A variant (with 6 SFF-8087) used as a JBOD would require 3 dual port SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 cables, but you would be able to just use the prebuilt supermicro ones that come in their JBOD chassis. And 6 SFF-8088 cables to run between your DAS and server chassis.

Lots of cabling.

EDIT:
Here are some other interesting options, even the ability to go straight from SATA/SAS to 8088.
8-port SFF-8088 to 7pin SAS PCI Adapter
8-port SFF-8088 miniSAS (host) to SAS/SATA 7pin (device) SAS Adapter
4-port SFF-8088 miniSAS (host) to SAS/SATA 7pin (device) SAS Adapter
16-Port SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 miniSAS Adapter

 

[Cipher]

It comes with complete (inner and outer) rails. I didn't check for the model on the sticker, but for all intents and purposes it's an SC216E16-R1200LPB. 2 of the 3 systems included the air shroud which was a bonus.

Thank you, Aestr. This helps to know what's included.

I was in the market for a 2u 24 bay chassis myself. Originally wanted the super micro 216 but all the ones listed were with a EL1 expander. Essentially 1 8087 connection to drive all 24 disks (2 other ports in expander are failover/daisychain and don't add anything to bandwidth). With SSD's and 24 bays this is a big bottleneck. I wanted 6 dedicated 8087 ports (4 disks/port). Didn't see any of those worth mentioning however. So I ended up getting an equivalent Intel barebones instead.

EDIT: just realized the link in the OP was the 216 AMD server I saw a while back and was considering purchasing just for the chassis. Also saw another with a full Intel E5 build for $630 (think it was E5-2630's). Seemed like a good deal if you don't mind not getting an E5-2670.

JayG30, some great info here as I'm finally starting to get a handle on all the various configurations!

I wanted to add that intended usage of these chassis is required before making a proper decision on choosing between the Expander vs Non-Expander versions. For my usage, I'm going to be using this in my home office attached to a 846 chassis. The 286 chassis will be populated with SSD drives storing 1-2 VMs per drive for development, whereas the 846 chassis will be populated with Spinner drives for storing media/files (Pictures, Movies, Audio, VM backups, Development files etc). At any one time, I doubt I would be running more than 5-6 of the VM's (I can only program against so many servers!), and there's no way that the host SSDs would all be running at full bandwidth.

Importantly, the simplicity of cabling these chassis in a cascading configuration along with the lower cost (fewer HBA & cables) makes the expander version a better choice for my needs. I also like the fact that I have another Expander chassis in case I decide to change my 846 chassis down the road to something bigger that might not have this feature.

I might be missing something here, but it sounds like the 216A version is meant for those who are running a fully loaded 216 chassis and expect full bandwidth to each drive. This scenario probably means hosting or corporate usage for most cases (either live or home lab testing), or maybe those scenarios where people are using this as a low cost 12G system.

I'd love to hear any other scenarios that I haven't heard or thought about.

 

[hd2012]

JayG30: thanks - it looks like cabling will be cost prohibitive, as well as ugly. maybe at this point I should consider NVME for 4k iops.

 

[JayG30]

Because I wanted 6 x SF-8087 connectors to handle lots of SSD's and couldn't find the 216 with an A style backplane for reasonable money, I purchased an Intel R2224GZ4GC4 for $500 instead.

Otherwise I would have purchased the Supermicro. Filled with 2.5" HDD's, maybe 2 SSD's as a cache tier in front of the HDD's, it should be a nice setup. Also, you should be able to purchase another daughter cards and get a second SFF-8087, essentially splitting each to only need to handle 12 disks.

 

[JayG30]

I just realized that STH has an article on the wiring discussion HERE. It's very well done with illustrations and all.