Help with SAS2-836EL1 and HBA HP220 in IT mode;

[ERDrPC]

HI

Really dumb question. I have a 3U SM chassis with SAS2-836EL1. I'm using a X10DRi-T motherboard. I want to connect the backplane to my HBA HP220 which is in IT mode.



The chassis came with a CBL-00117-01-A-R but it has a different end connector not compatible with the HP 220.

I bought two 8087 to 8087 cables which I think will do the trick. Which ports in the diagram above do I use for the two 8087 to 8087 cables? The CBL-00117-01-A-R came plugged into #7.

Second dumb question - There is CBL-00129-01-A-R connected to the 2.5 HDDs bays under the PSUs. Do I plug that in to a slot on the MB? Will that cable get me SSD SATA3 speed or better to swap out to a ??

Thanks

 

[itronin]

HI

Really dumb question. I have a 3U SM chassis with SAS2-836EL1. I'm using a X10DRi-T motherboard. I want to connect the backplane to my HBA HP220 which is in IT mode.

View attachment 26231

The chassis came with a CBL-00117-01-A-R but it has a different end connector not compatible with the HP 220.

I bought two 8087 to 8087 cables which I think will do the trick. Which ports in the diagram above do I use for the two 8087 to 8087 cables? The CBL-00117-01-A-R came plugged into #7.

Second dumb question - There is CBL-00129-01-A-R connected to the 2.5 HDDs bays under the PSUs. Do I plug that in to a slot on the MB? Will that cable get me SSD SATA3 speed or better to swap out to a ??

Thanks

IIRC on an "EL1" 12, 11, and 10 should not be there.
Your choices are 9, 8, 7. The recommended cabling pattern is actually in the manual for the backplane. However it really does NOT matter. All three connectors go to the expander chipset.

No for the fun part! Luck you - you have the newer CSE-836 which has a dual hotswap bay under the PSU's. The answer to your question is - it depends. What kind of drives are you going to put in those bays and do you want them connected to your SAS controller or the motherboard. - Wait - What? Yeah you can hang those two bays off one of your unused connections (9, 8, 7) if you have a forward SFF-8087 to SATA breakout cable.

What cable originally came in your chassis that was connected to the backplane? if it had SATA connectors it may be a reverse breakout cable which is no good for the scenario I described above and I recommend checking the part number on supermicro's web site. if it had a square blocky connector - probably SFF8087 to SFF8643 - which you might keep if you upgrade to a SAS3 controller.

Lastly if you just want to use the onboard sata ports and you have an X10DRi-T (not a variant) then you have sata ports on your motherboard then you can use a straight up normal sata cable to the rear hot swap bays. You might also want an SGPIO cable in place if you want to talk to the little backplane on the rear dual hot swap bay.

If you want to set this up for to connect a JBOD in the future THEN you're looking at a full height PCIE bracket SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 and will need an SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable to go between the EL1 and the bracket.

 

[ERDrPC]

I found this where it shows two connections in failover which uses ports #7 and #10. I double checked and the ports are there on the card.

 

[itronin]

If the chip (#4 in your diagram) and connectors (12, 11, 10) are on the backplane then you have an EL2 which is also printed on the page you reference in your last post. The model # should be printed on the backplane. Your OP referenced EL1. The rules and interconnect combinations are more and varied with an EL2 backplane.

Regarding the page you posted then to take advantage of an EL2 backplane you must use dual port SAS disks or SSDs. If you are using SATA disks or single port SAS disks or SSDs then any host connections through 12, 11, and 10 will not see the devices because there are no physical interconnections for the second port on the devices.

 

[ERDrPC]

Not sure what to say. The card is definitely an EL1 and all the ports are there??

 

[itronin]

Not sure what to say. The card is definitely an EL1 and all the ports are there??

COOL!!!! if you have time would you snap a pic and post it? that's something I've not seen yet and it would be great to document it. Re-reading your post you've got an odd mix of cables & connectors that came in that chassis!

Second dumb question - There is CBL-00129-01-A-R connected to the 2.5 HDDs bays under the PSUs. Do I plug that in to a slot on the MB? Will that cable get me SSD SATA3 speed or better to swap out to a ??

realized I didn't answer this fully.
That cable (connector is SFF-8643) is capable of up to SAS3 speeds (12Gbps) so yes, it would handle SATA3 (6Gbps). Question is does your motherboard have an SFF-8643 SATA connector or are you going to use an add in card with with SFF-8643 on it? Or as I suggested you can just use plain old SATA cables to connect those two bays.

edit:
or if you have an SFF-8087 to forward SATA breakout then you could connect those rear two bays to the backplane and use your connection(s) to the backplane to talk to those two drives... maybe something like CBL-00117-01-A-R.

oh wait...

The chassis came with a CBL-00117-01-A-R

here's a screenshot from a bay ad for a BPN-SAS2-836EL1. Red circles show components (2nd expander chip and SFF-8087 connectors) that are normally missing and the Green circles show what is normally there.



edit:

btw, this thread is starting to sound like this 3 year old post one over at the truenas forums. Guess this was a more common configuration than I thought.