Help with SuperMicro chassis

[Defcon1]

I have the following (purchased from ebay) -

• chassis: Supermicro | Products | Chassis | 4U| SC846TQ-R900B
• mobo: Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Aplus Products | Motherboards | H8DME-2
• cpu: AMD Opteron 2425 HE
• controller: 3x Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Products | Accessories | Add-on Cards | AOC-SAT2-MV8
• memory: 8GB DDR2

These are old controllers, will they support modern hard drives >4TB. I called SuperMicro support and they said most likely not.

So I'm looking at alternatives. e.g do I need a backplane like the BPN-SAS2-846EL1? This is a SAS expander so would need less cables.

I also have a LSI SAS3081E-R adapter card, I'm not sure if this can work with a SAS2 backplane like above and support all 24 drives with a 8087 cable?

 

[PigLover]

Get 3x SAS2008 based HBAs (LSI-9200/9201/9211-8i, IBM M1015, etc) and some 8087 forward breakout cables.

You don't need to replace the backplane. In fact, you probably don't want to. You can get these type of HBA used for $40-60, sometimes as low as $25. You might spend more in cables than for the HBAs...

 

[ttabbal]

The SAT2-MV8 are kind of a pain. I tried using one in a backup machine, and got kernel panics on Debian Jessie under moderate load. They are considered incompatible with FreeNAS, though I think the kernel will pick them up. Honestly, I see no reason to use them for much of anything.

I have a similar setup, you might have bought from the same vendor I did. The chassis is nice, and the TQ backplane is fine if you don't mind the wiring. It will work with any size drive as it's a passthrough design, so no active electronics to mess with you. Your options are as follows.

1) Replace the backplane with an SAS expander model. SAS1 is limited to 2TB drives, SAS2 probably has a limit but I haven't heard of anyone bumping into it. Your LSI 3081 is limited to 2TB drives for the same reason the SAS1 backplanes are. It will work, and run all 24 drives, if you keep them below 2TB. If you get an SAS2 backplane and card, you can run all drives without size restrictions that matter at the moment.

2) Keep the backplane and use 3x HBAs and breakout cables. This is what I do as it's the cheapest route AND the most performant, should you ever put fast drives in there. It's also the easiest to find parts for. Note that Dell H200/H310 are also flashable like the IBM M1015 and seem more available.

3) Keep the backplane, use a single HBA and an SAS expander. This usually costs more, and some say is finicky with some SATA drives. I have no idea how true that is or is not. Performance will be slower as you are combining all the drive data over fewer channels to the computer. It is unlikely to bottleneck with spinning rust though.

 

[Defcon1]

Thanks for the quick help guys. Reading about the options now and looking on ebay for cheap HBA's. I have not used my current server at all except for brief power on test.