1 x SFF-8087 to 4 x SFF-8087 SAS Cable, DGM-441A-844, Manuf: 3M

[nthu9280]

Has anyone used this cable before? HBA/RAID to Expander BP may be? Cable routing will be really tidy if it can be used on Direct Attach BP. I can't seem to find any documentation on 3M's site.

3M DGM-441A-844 SFF-8087 1 to 4 Internal SAS Cable F2 E | eBay

 

[BlueFox]

I presume you're referencing one of the Supermicro direct attached (A-type) backplanes. If that is the case, then that cable will not work for you. It looks like it takes the 4 lanes from the HBA and completely splits them up. This would only be usable with a bunch of SAS expanders, though you would be limited to the link speed of a single lane on each one. If used without SAS expanders, only your first out of every four drives would be connected. I'm not sure what the actual use case for this cable is as I've never encountered it before (presumably some vendor doing something wonky...HP maybe?).

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Has anyone used this cable before? HBA/RAID to Expander BP may be? Cable routing will be really tidy if it can be used on Direct Attach BP. I can't seem to find any documentation on 3M's site.

It is some OEM version of 3M's High Routability cables. They invented this type of cable for supercomputer interconnect applications, but it gets a lot of use in SAS cabling as well as PCIe slot extenders.

If you have a Supermicro A-series backplane, you want the 8F36 Series (PDF). I used them in my RAIDzilla 2.5 design:

They are available in 1cm increments from 0.25m to 2.00m, but you need to buy a lot of them to get them in anything but the stock 0.50m length. "A lot" is 350 to 1000 pieces, depending on who you talk to. But they are great - you can fold 90-degree bends in them, etc. to get them exactly where you want them.

 

[nthu9280]

@Terry Kennedy Thank you so much! This is just for my home lab . Have a question on the correct part#(s) for future reference. Do I need the ones with sideband or without?

8F36-AAA105-0.50

A = 4-lane with sidebands, SN-plated signal, cable P/N SL8801/12-11DA5-00
B = 4-lane with sidebands, AG-plated signal, cable P/N SL8801/12/10DA5-00
C = 4-lane no sidebands, SN-plated signal, cable P/N SL8802/08-21DN5-00
D = 4-lane no sidebands, AG-plated signal, cable P/N SL8802/08-20DN5-00

 

[Terry Kennedy]

@Terry Kennedy Thank you so much! This is just for my home lab . Have a question on the correct part#(s) for future reference. Do I need the ones with sideband or without?

8F36-AAA105-0.50

A = 4-lane with sidebands, SN-plated signal, cable P/N SL8801/12-11DA5-00
B = 4-lane with sidebands, AG-plated signal, cable P/N SL8801/12/10DA5-00
C = 4-lane no sidebands, SN-plated signal, cable P/N SL8802/08-21DN5-00
D = 4-lane no sidebands, AG-plated signal, cable P/N SL8802/08-20DN5-00

The only one you're likely to find stocked anywhere is the A version. However, the only standard length (the .5m one) will be too short to reach the connector on the rightmost column of drives in a Supermicro 836A backplane. It may even be too short to reach the next column over, depending on where your controller's connectors are (it would probably work for something like an X8DTH-6F since the SAS connectors are on the edge of the motherboard next to the drive bays).

It never hurts to have the sidebands, even if you don't use them. Most LSI controllers and Supermicro A-family backplanes will use them to operate the locate / fault LED in each drive bay.