DIY JBOD Chassis. This all I need?

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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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Just my My suggestion for diy-er. Get 3d printer to create something. I have ender 3 total was 180 , bought last year. Whenever i need build something. I fire up my printer ( install old pi 2 with octopi) that i can control or upload the file for printing
Blank io plate ready to print... Blank I/O shield by adam_p

I use mostly pla filament. Or abs when need endurance fir heat and flexibility...

Kind of hijack your thread. .please delete if not appropriate.
 

Dave Corder

Active Member
Dec 21, 2015
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That's almost exactly what I use to turn a couple Norco 4224 cases into JBOD units (those parts, plus HP SAS expanders). ~$6.39 seems to be the going rate for a pair of blank I/O shields on fleabay.
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
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If the U-Nas has fan power/control built in, you don't need the jbod board, just jumper green-black on the power supply. I believe the JBOD1 board runs fans at 100%, so might replace it with a fan controller instead. Also need the sff-8087->sata forward break out cables, or whatever the u-nas has.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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Just my My suggestion for diy-er. Get 3d printer to create something. I have ender 3 total was 180 , bought last year. Whenever i need build something. I fire up my printer ( install old pi 2 with octopi) that i can control or upload the file for printing
Blank io plate ready to print... Blank I/O shield by adam_p

I use mostly pla filament. Or abs when need endurance fir heat and flexibility...

Kind of hijack your thread. .please delete if not appropriate.
Create an entire JBOD case with a 3D printer? Sure I know that's possible but that's way out of the scope of work I want to be doing.


That's almost exactly what I use to turn a couple Norco 4224 cases into JBOD units (those parts, plus HP SAS expanders). ~$6.39 seems to be the going rate for a pair of blank I/O shields on fleabay.
Sweet!


If the U-Nas has fan power/control built in, you don't need the jbod board, just jumper green-black on the power supply. I believe the JBOD1 board runs fans at 100%, so might replace it with a fan controller instead. Also need the sff-8087->sata forward break out cables, or whatever the u-nas has.
How would I connect the front panel power button this way or are you saying just render it useless? I'm probably fine running the two fans I'll be using (Noctua Chromax) at 100% all the time as they are not loud.
 

LunchB0xK1ller

New Member
Jul 26, 2018
22
2
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You have the basics few suggestions only,

1. JBOD card here is the better board I would say and available new on ebay. I liked the second revision a bit better than the first and I am currently using a few of the second revisions.
2. External HBA here cheaper than previous listed and still great card plus it is in IT mode so its plug and play with UnRaid or FreeNAS.
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
192
43
Create an entire JBOD case with a 3D printer? Sure I know that's possible but that's way out of the scope of work I want to be doing.




Sweet!




How would I connect the front panel power button this way or are you saying just render it useless? I'm probably fine running the two fans I'll be using (Noctua Chromax) at 100% all the time as they are not loud.
I figure a JBOD you never want off. If you need it off, unplug it. It needs to be powered before the host usually to get the drives initialized, although without an expander that is likely less important.
If the fans can run at 100% all the time, I'd personally skip the JBOD board, as I don't think it adds anything.
I'd also think about adding an intel sas expander, as it would let you populate the internal ssd bays...
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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You have the basics few suggestions only,

1. JBOD card here is the better board I would say and available new on ebay. I liked the second revision a bit better than the first and I am currently using a few of the second revisions.
2. External HBA here cheaper than previous listed and still great card plus it is in IT mode so its plug and play with UnRaid or FreeNAS.
Yup, I discovered the second revision of the card. It's actually cheapest on Wiredzone ($57). As for the HBA, anything wrong with this one?


I figure a JBOD you never want off. If you need it off, unplug it. It needs to be powered before the host usually to get the drives initialized, although without an expander that is likely less important.
If the fans can run at 100% all the time, I'd personally skip the JBOD board, as I don't think it adds anything.
I'd also think about adding an intel sas expander, as it would let you populate the internal ssd bays...
You're probably right, I probably don't need the JBOD board. As for the Intel SAS expander, I probably don't need it as I have room for SSD's in my server case but just curious how that would integrate into a JBOD case?
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
192
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Yup, I discovered the second revision of the card. It's actually cheapest on Wiredzone ($57). As for the HBA, anything wrong with this one?




You're probably right, I probably don't need the JBOD board. As for the Intel SAS expander, I probably don't need it as I have room for SSD's in my server case but just curious how that would integrate into a JBOD case?
Simple! Instead of the 8088/8087 bulkhead connector, get a supermicro 8088/8087 bulkhead and cable; then run that to the intel expander. The intel also needs a 4 pin molex for power. Then use 8087->sata forward cables to each drive, or 8087-8087 if using a backplane.
https://store.supermicro.com/85cm-minisas-cbl-0352l.html
(SM has other lengths, and has single port as well). These are on ebay.
The intel expander does dual link to HBA via a waterfall, so if you can't pull more than 2.4gb/s out of the drives there is no reason to use two cables to the HBA, but if you want to be able to daisy chain to another box get the dual connector version. I'm not sure which/if any OS may have issues if you dual link the expander like that, too....
The other, budget approach, which is slower and may not work with >2tb drives, is one of the HP expanders which has an external port. The negative of that expander is that it needs power via PCI express connector, so you need to use a mining slot to power it. It also only runs sata drives at 3gb/s, the intel runs sata drives at 6gb and works with (can verify) 4 tb drives minimum
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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Simple! Instead of the 8088/8087 bulkhead connector, get a supermicro 8088/8087 bulkhead and cable; then run that to the intel expander. The intel also needs a 4 pin molex for power. Then use 8087->sata forward cables to each drive, or 8087-8087 if using a backplane.
https://store.supermicro.com/85cm-minisas-cbl-0352l.html
(SM has other lengths, and has single port as well). These are on ebay.
The intel expander does dual link to HBA via a waterfall, so if you can't pull more than 2.4gb/s out of the drives there is no reason to use two cables to the HBA, but if you want to be able to daisy chain to another box get the dual connector version. I'm not sure which/if any OS may have issues if you dual link the expander like that, too....
The other, budget approach, which is slower and may not work with >2tb drives, is one of the HP expanders which has an external port. The negative of that expander is that it needs power via PCI express connector, so you need to use a mining slot to power it. It also only runs sata drives at 3gb/s, the intel runs sata drives at 6gb and works with (can verify) 4 tb drives minimum
I may look into use an expander in the future but for now I don't have a need for it. All my SSDs are NVMe's and are either plugged directly into the MoBo or through a PCIe card.
 

canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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Create an entire JBOD case with a 3D printer? Sure I know that's possible but that's way out of the scope of work I want to be doing.




Sweet!




How would I connect the front panel power button this way or are you saying just render it useless? I'm probably fine running the two fans I'll be using (Noctua Chromax) at 100% all the time as they are not loud.
Not the whole case generally.
Just printing blank io . And if you need bracket or misc parts. Those are easy to make with 3d printing..
Many are available free from 3d sites. Such as thingverse and other.
Example: i need io blankplate with ethernet port holes. Instead hacking real blank io. I can use available model and edit it.
 

jingram

Member
Oct 21, 2018
57
8
8
What would one need to turn something like a U-NAS 810 into a JBOD enclosure?

Would the following suffice to install in the chassis?

PSU
Dual SFF-8080 HBA
SFF-8088 to SFF-8087 card
Power on/off card

Anyone know where I can get a solid I/O shield backplate cover?
I have been looking at doing this exact same thing with this exact same chassis, to mirror the e-2176g server I already have in a U-NAS 810a.

Please keep us posted and provide an FAQ/Pics when your build is complete if you go down this road.

Thanks!
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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I have been looking at doing this exact same thing with this exact same chassis, to mirror the e-2176g server I already have in a U-NAS 810a.

Please keep us posted and provide an FAQ/Pics when your build is complete if you go down this road.

Thanks!
I have decided to go down this road. Will check back in once parts arrive.
 

Mike W

Kuntrolphreak
Jun 29, 2018
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Suffolk, Va

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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Been looking at doing the same thing for a long time. Don’t know if you have seen them but you can buy Duplicator cases that will satisfy what your looking for. Check them out here Duplicator Cases,DVD duplicator case. duplicator chasis. Then install these RSV-SATA-Cage-34 - Cage for Hard Disk Drives - 3 x 5.25" to 4 x 3.5" Hot-Swap - SATA III / SAS, Black - Rosewill in them to build them to your need. Good luck and keep us updated.
Interesting but I wish I could see the back of these so I could see if they have fan and psu slots.
 

itronin

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2018
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Denver, Colorado
At one point in my recent journey I was also looking at DIY JBOD/DAS cases. Pictures of the back of the copystars cases seem to be hard to come by (google images, stock photos, resellers). I did find a couple and some Q/A on AMZ. The back (7 bay) typically has at least one FAN plus the PSU. The knockouts you'd probably need (unless you cut your own) are supposed to be centronics style. It would be cheaper for DIY NAS if they used PCIE brackets but have not measured PCIE brackets to see if they can be cut down to fit centronics (and add nuts to hold them in place). I decided to build systems rather than DIY JBOD/DAS.

Edit - each case size seems to have its own set of comments/questions (and pictures) so probably want to click through esp. 5 bay size.

see here AMZ Copystars

itr
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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I dont think the duplicator cases will work for me. I have a 13" x 13" space where I'd like to put the case I'm looking for and that's the perfect size for the U-NAS case which is 12.5" wide.

 
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