Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to test that, britinpdx!
RE: Patrick and britinpdx comments about how (hpt 4320+ direct backplane) *should* work: I 100% agree, and ive posted (at bottom of this post) my exact correspondence with highpoint support, i did try to make very clear that this is not an expander, and IS a direct attached backplane. I think Patrick was dead on with, its just *easier* for support to say "it wont work"
2 new points: There was a change to my schedule so i was able to grab the 4320 today and test it on my setup! (versus waiting 6 days as i previously had thought i would have to do)
IT DOES WORK!!
no issues that i can tell thus far, and performance seems great so far!
What i have done:
(see attached images below of the speeds im seeing on the 4320 with 2 x Raid 5 arrays, AND speeds from the troubled 5805 on the same disks with same array types,)
Backplane is: BPN-SAS-846A Supermicro Backplane, (direct attach, it has 6x SFF-8087 port connected directly to 24 SATA/SAS Hotswap bays, not an expander, each 8087 drives 4 bays, just like a breakout cable would)
Motherboard is (shouldn't really matter): Supermicro
X8DTE-F
Power Supply is: 2 x supermicro
PWS-920P-1R (Platinum efficiency power supply)
Chassis is: Supermicro
SC846 (4u, 24bay)
RAID cards: Adaptec
5405z , Adaptec
51645 , Highpoint
4320 (replaces the 5805 i was using before)
+The 5405z goes to an external hotswap bay which has 4x
intel 710 SSD drives (100gb each), this is in a raid6 array running the OS (win serv 2008 r2), and also has a raid6 array that i use for VMs OS es (vmware workstation run in 2008 r2)
+The 51645 goes to
10x 1tb Hitachi HDE721010SLA330 (PN: 0A38028) sata drives in the hotswap bays, and also 5x 3tb Toshiba
DT01ABA300 (drive rev: AAA AA00 / BB0 ) drives , these run various raid 5 and raid 6 arrays, and haven't shown any major issues over the past 30-40 days. however the toshiba array does sometimes run a bit slow when doing OS copy functions, but this maybe bc they are 5400 rpm drives versus the others being 7200rpm , not a big speed hit, but its noticeable at times (there is an unused sff-8088 external port on this card that i may used in the future)
+ I HAD been running an adaptec 5805 on 8x
3tb HUA723030ALA640 (PN: 0F15123) (NOTE THE FIN PART NUMBER **PLEASE**, VERY IMPORTANT, this is a Hitachi EUROPEAN part number, not Hitachi North America, this is a BIG DEAL!!)
I had alot of problems with the 5805 and these particular drives (the particular part number) - The exact MODEL NUMBER of the 8x HUA Drives are both listed on the Adaptec 5805 AND the Hitachi HUA723030ALA640 compatibility lists (they do NOT list part numbers on these lists though, just model numbers), so i figured i'm all good to go! WRONG.
First off- Every time i would create a RAID 6 array, i could never get it to fully initialize without a drive dropping out and messing up the initialize process. I contacted adaptec support, we went back and forth several times, sending logs and trying different methods, nothing worked, and the final determination from adaptec support was there is some incompatibility with these particular drives and to contact hitachi. I then call hitachi north america, read them the model number, and then the part number, and they say, oh we cant offer you support or firmware for this drive, as its from Hitachi Europe. (i thought this was rediclious, and even tried a different rep a day later, with the same result) they refered me to the entirely useless htiachi europe website (
Hitachi Europe : Inspire the Next ), which doesnt even list anything about HDDs. They also provided a UK phone number which i called (long distance) and was not able to even get connected to a dept that dealt with HDDs (the reps had no idea how/where to connect me too, all they had were support departments for hitachi cameras and other hitachi consumer electronic devices). I did try connecting the 8x HUA drives directly to the 5805 via a fan-out cable, the result was the same.
However on the 5805 I was able to make a Raid 5 array or even a Raid 5ee array, and so i did that and thought all was good. Well about 3 weeks after making rd 5 and 5ee arrays (huge ones, 8tb , 8tb and a 3tb 5ee) randomly one day a drive dropped out, so i swapped it with an extra (a 9th - 3tb HUA drive) and it rebuilt the arrays with no issues. I tested the dropped 3tb HUA drive as best i could, and found no issues nor even slow speeds when the drive was hooked directly to an extra Motherboard i have ( thus the dropped drive is fine). Then about a week after this (ive now just about filled up the arrays with data) another drive dropped, so i then inserted the 8th 3tb HUA drive and about 60% through the rebuild, the newly inserted drive dropped from the array (thank god it wasnt a different drive of the array or i would have lost all data of both RD5 arrays). I was able to finally get this array rebuild by booting into adaptec BIOS and letting it rebuild 1 array (of the 3) at a time (which due to the poor adaptec BIOS interface i had to jury-rig by setting one rebuilding array to high priority and the other 2 to LOW priority, then up priority as the arrays finished each rebuild). I knew i had to get rid of either the 5805 or the 8x drives, so i decided to try an extra HighPoint 4320 Raid Card, thus this thread.
-- i did have an unrelated issue which i should mention incase others are searching: I started off this build with a BPN-SAS-846EL1 Backplane (the 24 bay EXPANDER version) and wanted to run several drives on the EL1 backplane via the 5405z) again, the expander and the drives are on Adaptec's and SM's compatibility list (HBA to Backplane) and the HUA drives are listed on SM's and Hitachi, and Adaptec's compatibility lists (as a drive compatible with the backplane and vice versa)..so i should be all good, right? wrong.. i guess it could be the part number issue, but for some annoying reason, i would make an array, then if i did a SHUTDOWN, then start up, the 5405z would only spin up A FEW OF THE DRIVES (using a 10 disk array) thus the array is broken on start-up. However, if i did a reboot, (thus all the drives are already spinning, and remain spinning), all drives would be recognized on the boot and the arrays would be fine. I did try adding a very long delay at the BIOS/POST screen (before the Adaptec BIOS screen), this made NO difference, even adding a huge delay did not matter , the adaptec card just would not spin up all 10 (or more) drives. I even tried tossing in lots of random sata drives i had laying around (i.e. some WDs, some samsung drives, some seagates) it made no difference, nor did the specific hotswap bay of the 24 that the drives were inserted into. Its as if the card would send X number of spin up commands, one at a time, and then stop sending the spin up command. The hitachi drives did not have any jumper settings that could be changed (i.e. some drives have a jumper setting to make them spin up as soon as they get power, and the opposite too, not these hitachi's though). So i then bought the 846TQ backplane (non expander, has 24x sata ports, direct) and thus began the saga above with the 5805... ( i later also bought the 846A backplane, just to clean up cabling, so i have ALL 3 backplanes at this point *LOL* - what a waste of money, i had to buy the 846TQ backplane brand new, full price, and the place would not take it back ( ebizpc.com ), even 3 days after delivery
)
Images of Raid card copy performance graphs:
note: these are copy operations done in 2008 r2 , the speed data is graphed from WMI, via PRTG polling 2008 r2's WMI data every 30 seconds and plotting/recording it.
1) Highpoint 4320 card - Copies in graph below are
run WHILE the 3x arrays are being initialized (in background). Note the 2x 8tb rd5 arrays (J and K drive's) BOTH being written to, so 300+ MB/sec write (may be bound by source - 2 x single 4tb sata drives thus each ~150 mb/s Read)
2) J drive = 8tb raid5, on the problem 5805 adaptec card, no other operations are being run, the write destination are Raid 5/6 arrays on the 51645 card (i get 250-400 mb/sec write on these arrays). NOTE ~50 mb/sec with weird spikes
3) K drive is a 8tb raid 5, this is also on the problem 5805 adaptec card, no other operations are being run at all, the write destination is again the other Raid 5/6 arrays i have on the 51645 card (i see 250-400 mb/sec write on these arrays):