help buying new reliable fileserver/sas expander... 24/36/48 bay
- Thread starter muthur6k
- Start date
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Quick update:
I didn't get the one I wanted, but it will work as a storage server only if vm's slows it down too much, but I think it will be just fine for my usage.
Just starting it up for the first time was worth the price, so I will not complain.
• (1) - SUPERMICRO CSE-847 36-BAY 4U CHASIS SERVER
• (1) - SUPERMICRO X8DTI MOTHERBOARD
• (2) - INTEL XEON QUAD CORE E5620 2.4GHZ LGA1366 CPU PROCESSOR E-5620 2.4 2.40GHZ LGA 1366
• (6) - SAMSUNG 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHZ ECC REG CL9 240-PIN DIMM DUAL RANK MEMORY M393B5170FH0-CH9
• (1) - ADAPTEC RAID 5805Z 2266900-R SATA/SAS 8 INTERNAL PORTS W/ 512MB CACHE MEM CONTROLLER CARD
• (1) - SUPERMICRO BACKPLANE BPN-SAS2-846EL
• (1) - INTEL E1G44ET2BLK GIGABIT ET2 QUAD PORT SERVER ADAPTER 10/100/1000MBPS PCI-EXPRESS 4 X RJ45
• (2) - SUPERMICRO PWS-1K41P-1R 24PIN 1400W 1U SERVER POWER SUPPLY PSU 80PLUS GOLD
• (36) - HARD DRIVE HDD CADDYS
Took about a month or so to get it to Norway.
Jetcarrier was really easy to work with, and their support worked great.
Had a lot of downtime, so things gets done when they do.
I forgot to check if the screws for the caddy was included, so had to order them separate.
Each ebay purchase takes a couple of weeks to a month to be delivered, so time flies.
I have replaced the Adaptec Raid card with one IBM1015 in IT-mode - only to find the SAS connectors are at the top of the 1015 card and on the back of the Adaptec. So I need two cables with 90 degree angle to avoid hitting the lid.
Is it ok to buy china-cables for this?
Was thinking of mounting 2 x SSDs as OS drives under the mainboard - and a couple hotswap SSDs for VMs in mirror or raidz2.
Also bought some Dell adapters for the 3.5 > 2.5 caddy.
Regarding disks; I found even more 4tb external drives in a box when I made my house puppy-proof, so I'm close to filling it with my current drives.
I have an old sound-proof(-ish) Rittal rack, so the rails I bought did not fit at all (2U-5U Rail Kit CSE-847 MCP-290-00058-0N) in the frame.
I know I read about them here, but I have not been able to find a pair of old-style rails for this rack.
If I'm not able to get old-style rails for it, it just might be cheaper to get a new frame for my Rittal - or make something myself.
We've had 5 or 6 power outtages in my area in December, so I don't dare to try zfs until my ups is back up and running.
Still alot of reading to do.
Thanks to you all who helped me get started here.
I didn't get the one I wanted, but it will work as a storage server only if vm's slows it down too much, but I think it will be just fine for my usage.
Just starting it up for the first time was worth the price, so I will not complain.
• (1) - SUPERMICRO CSE-847 36-BAY 4U CHASIS SERVER
• (1) - SUPERMICRO X8DTI MOTHERBOARD
• (2) - INTEL XEON QUAD CORE E5620 2.4GHZ LGA1366 CPU PROCESSOR E-5620 2.4 2.40GHZ LGA 1366
• (6) - SAMSUNG 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3-1333MHZ ECC REG CL9 240-PIN DIMM DUAL RANK MEMORY M393B5170FH0-CH9
• (1) - ADAPTEC RAID 5805Z 2266900-R SATA/SAS 8 INTERNAL PORTS W/ 512MB CACHE MEM CONTROLLER CARD
• (1) - SUPERMICRO BACKPLANE BPN-SAS2-846EL
• (1) - INTEL E1G44ET2BLK GIGABIT ET2 QUAD PORT SERVER ADAPTER 10/100/1000MBPS PCI-EXPRESS 4 X RJ45
• (2) - SUPERMICRO PWS-1K41P-1R 24PIN 1400W 1U SERVER POWER SUPPLY PSU 80PLUS GOLD
• (36) - HARD DRIVE HDD CADDYS
Took about a month or so to get it to Norway.
Jetcarrier was really easy to work with, and their support worked great.
Had a lot of downtime, so things gets done when they do.
I forgot to check if the screws for the caddy was included, so had to order them separate.
Each ebay purchase takes a couple of weeks to a month to be delivered, so time flies.
I have replaced the Adaptec Raid card with one IBM1015 in IT-mode - only to find the SAS connectors are at the top of the 1015 card and on the back of the Adaptec. So I need two cables with 90 degree angle to avoid hitting the lid.
Is it ok to buy china-cables for this?
Was thinking of mounting 2 x SSDs as OS drives under the mainboard - and a couple hotswap SSDs for VMs in mirror or raidz2.
Also bought some Dell adapters for the 3.5 > 2.5 caddy.
Regarding disks; I found even more 4tb external drives in a box when I made my house puppy-proof, so I'm close to filling it with my current drives.
I have an old sound-proof(-ish) Rittal rack, so the rails I bought did not fit at all (2U-5U Rail Kit CSE-847 MCP-290-00058-0N) in the frame.
I know I read about them here, but I have not been able to find a pair of old-style rails for this rack.
If I'm not able to get old-style rails for it, it just might be cheaper to get a new frame for my Rittal - or make something myself.
We've had 5 or 6 power outtages in my area in December, so I don't dare to try zfs until my ups is back up and running.
Still alot of reading to do.
Thanks to you all who helped me get started here.
China cables are ok. I always buy from China as it is cheaper than US. I've had a few problems with bad cables, which you always risk anyway. But in 9 out of 10 orders everything has been fine. But if you value your time, considering a more reliable source is recommended. It is really depressive to spend hours to conclude the errors you are seeing is caused by a defective cable which you ordered for 5usd 
Thanks, I rather pay more if I can avoid headaches later, sure.
What source are you referring to?
Does not look like Supermicro hava a 90 degree connector, and everything on ebay looks more or like the same imo.
The server came with cbl-0281l-01 cables - do you know what that extra flat cable is for (or is it two, perhaps)?
I can not find it on any cables on ebay as they all have a cable protector around.
What source are you referring to?
Does not look like Supermicro hava a 90 degree connector, and everything on ebay looks more or like the same imo.
The server came with cbl-0281l-01 cables - do you know what that extra flat cable is for (or is it two, perhaps)?
I can not find it on any cables on ebay as they all have a cable protector around.
Limits I've recently experienced:
Drives larger than 8TB are not typically supported with legacy RAID, HBA, expanders, onboard SATA. My 2 attempts at getting an IT flashed M1015 both failed to see all 10TB with some first generation HGST He10 drives. Startech has an external USB 3.0 case the sees all the space. Only my 2 newest computers see all 10 TB with onboard SATA. They are less than 3 years old.
Others here have had much better luck with 10TB+ drives. Even working with the M1015 properly. Why mine have had size issues I don't know or care. I just immediately move on, buy different gear until it works.
24 drives max per card limit in Windows 7 Pro 64bit with LSI firmware and drivers- I have 2 36 port Chenbro expanders. To use more then 24 drives, I have to add a second LSI and hook the second SAS expander and 24 more drives max to that. In the LSI BIOS there is setting for max drives. It won't go any higher than 24. Don't know why. Don't care either.
On that box, staggered spinup only works after reboot, not on initial power up, and while I have room for 48 drives, the lack of staggered spinup kept me from running it with more than 24 drives.
I do have another 50amp 12v PS on the shelf, but building another cable harness for power was more time than I was willing to spend, plus the server already had the mad scientist look to it (one of the goals besides saving thousands of dollars by making my own case and having no backplane).
Drives larger than 8TB are not typically supported with legacy RAID, HBA, expanders, onboard SATA. My 2 attempts at getting an IT flashed M1015 both failed to see all 10TB with some first generation HGST He10 drives. Startech has an external USB 3.0 case the sees all the space. Only my 2 newest computers see all 10 TB with onboard SATA. They are less than 3 years old.
Others here have had much better luck with 10TB+ drives. Even working with the M1015 properly. Why mine have had size issues I don't know or care. I just immediately move on, buy different gear until it works.
24 drives max per card limit in Windows 7 Pro 64bit with LSI firmware and drivers- I have 2 36 port Chenbro expanders. To use more then 24 drives, I have to add a second LSI and hook the second SAS expander and 24 more drives max to that. In the LSI BIOS there is setting for max drives. It won't go any higher than 24. Don't know why. Don't care either.
On that box, staggered spinup only works after reboot, not on initial power up, and while I have room for 48 drives, the lack of staggered spinup kept me from running it with more than 24 drives.
I do have another 50amp 12v PS on the shelf, but building another cable harness for power was more time than I was willing to spend, plus the server already had the mad scientist look to it (one of the goals besides saving thousands of dollars by making my own case and having no backplane).
Depending on what you mean by legacy, it is false to say it's "not typically supported". On the LSI side of things anything SAS2008 (first to support SAS2/SATA3) or newer, or indeed any controller with LBA48/64 support (sometimes also called read16/write16), should support any drive over 2TB assuming 512B sectors (the mathematical limit is 144PB). Any SAS or SATA controller from the last 10yrs should support this IIRC.
Either I've been very unlucky with multiple various components, or there does exist an 8TB barrier. Enough said.
@Sixthofmay - Not sure what's going on with your setup, but the M1015 should have zero issues with 10TB drives or more than 24x drives on a single card, while using expanders.
Even though I use an Adaptec 78165 24 port card now, I've used many different LSI cards with my setup (3x 24 bay Supermicro 846 chassis as expansion units with a separate server as the head) and have never faced a problem with even 72 drives.
I will say though that I never use any desktop versions of Windows on the server side. I always user Windows Server xxxx, (still on 2012 R2 btw).
Even though I use an Adaptec 78165 24 port card now, I've used many different LSI cards with my setup (3x 24 bay Supermicro 846 chassis as expansion units with a separate server as the head) and have never faced a problem with even 72 drives.
I will say though that I never use any desktop versions of Windows on the server side. I always user Windows Server xxxx, (still on 2012 R2 btw).
"but the M1015 should have zero issues with 10TB drives"
Likely true with any other model 10TB drive. I have confirmed the HGST 0F27502 HUH721010ALN600 with whatever firmware version it has is at fault. Note I purchased 3 of these drives over a 2 year period. They all have the same size reporting issue.
I confirmed by purchasing ten Western Digital 10TB Easystore drives and shucking the cases to find inside:
WD100EMAX
256MB cache
model:WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0
part num:2W10228
This model Western Digital drive works fine everywhere except with the 3Ware 9650SE-12ML (has the latest firmware v4.10.00.027). That controller does detect the WD100EMAX space correctly (9.09TB), but says there's an error with the drive (there is not, drives test fine with HD Sentinel over the USB 3.0 interface).
Likely true with any other model 10TB drive. I have confirmed the HGST 0F27502 HUH721010ALN600 with whatever firmware version it has is at fault. Note I purchased 3 of these drives over a 2 year period. They all have the same size reporting issue.
I confirmed by purchasing ten Western Digital 10TB Easystore drives and shucking the cases to find inside:
WD100EMAX
256MB cache
model:WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0
part num:2W10228
This model Western Digital drive works fine everywhere except with the 3Ware 9650SE-12ML (has the latest firmware v4.10.00.027). That controller does detect the WD100EMAX space correctly (9.09TB), but says there's an error with the drive (there is not, drives test fine with HD Sentinel over the USB 3.0 interface).