Cheap, multipath SAS JBOD enclosures

[djbon2112]

Hello everyone. I'm doing a dual-server storage setup for really HA storage and am looking for the corresponding disk shelves. My requirements are:
* 16x 3.5" drive capacity in 3U
* Supports 3TB SATA drives
* Dual-controller (i.e. multipath) so one shelf can connect to two servers
* Dual-PSU is a massive plus, possibly a requirement depending on the power draw

The software side doesn't concern me at all right now; I'm looking at the hardware first and will figure out how to make the software side work once I have the parts. My main concern here, besides the base requirements above, is budget. I'm allocating about $1200 for two of them, so ~$600 each is my limit. I'm completely vendor-agnostic as long as the enclosures will connect to the two IBM 1015M SAS cards I already have (via an external SAS adapter, of course).

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Chuntzu]

There are 3u supermicro chassis with dual SAS expanders and dual power supplies. They were relatively cheap when I picked them up a while back, well under $600 ea. You will need to re think the drive selection to SAS 3tb drives. SAS or no sas drives are the only ones that would utilize both channels on chassis with redundant SAS expanders. I picked mine up from amazon a while ago and they were only 15% more than the same size data drives. It took me a while to find them for that price but was worth the wait.

 

[djbon2112]

I already have the drives (20x 3TB) otherwise I'd just go 2.5" and get with the times ;-)

I like the looks of the Supermicro's, but so far I haven't seen any for a reasonable price (~$3000 on eBay...). Also looking at the HP MSA60, but 12 drives just aren't enough. Anyone else have other vendor suggestions?

Edit: I do know I need interposers, I'm budgeting for that but that also reduces how much I can spend to get the two chassis themselves.

 

[T_Minus]

That pricing sounds crazy, are you sure you're looking on ebay supermicro parts?

 

[djbon2112]

I'm likely searching for the wrong thing by part number, what should I be looking for exactly?

That pricing sounds crazy, are you sure you're looking on ebay supermicro parts?

 

[bds1904]

Question, how are you going to multipath with sata drives? Don't you need dual port SAS drives to multipath? Even with an interposer, multipath on sata doesn't work akaik.

 

[djbon2112]

Question, how are you going to multipath with sata drives? Don't you need dual port SAS drives to multipath? Even with an interposer, multipath on sata doesn't work akaik.

I'm under the impression that you can't access the SATA disk through *both* paths simultaneously, but I'm not looking to do that anyways; each disk will only ever be accessed by one server at a time, and the multipath will allow disks to fail over to the other server easily during an outage. If I'm wrong I'd love to be corrected now before I spend a ton of money though!

 

[HotFix]

I'm under the impression that you can't access the SATA disk through *both* paths simultaneously, but I'm not looking to do that anyways; each disk will only ever be accessed by one server at a time, and the multipath will allow disks to fail over to the other server easily during an outage. If I'm wrong I'd love to be corrected now before I spend a ton of money though!

At least in the Windows world, and I am pretty sure this is a universal thing, for either server to take over a disk at the drop of a hat both of them need to see it at the same time. In the case of Windows, its the clustering service that arbitrates which node is using what disk at any one point in time as the disks are considered clustered resources.

The only exception to this that I am aware of in the Windows world is the new Storage Spaces Direct Access feature where disks can be isolated to particular host and participated in a networked storage pool, but I don't think that is what you are talking about.