IBM DAS with 12x1tb HDD.

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altmind

Active Member
Sep 23, 2018
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I also can only negotiate the link @3G.
These units are newer than on the original EXP3000 release. 1tb sas drives are not even an option in the docs.

BTW: my problem was the sas card not being in IT mode. wrong labeling of equipment :)
 
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gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
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I think the eBay description was wrong - these use SAS1 expanders at 3Gb/s not 6Gb/s. See my other post here: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...00-16e-slow-performance-using-8-drives.27454/

I'm new to DAS hardware so am not sure whether this is acceptable. For spinning rust, I can reach the SAS bus limit with 8 of the 12 drives. SSDs would reach the limit much faster.

Let me know if anyone has any recommendations.
This is some guessing, but it looks like the exp3000 is (another) xyratex unit using storage bridge bay controllers. If so, a dell 6gb/s sc200 controller might well drop in and work.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Dell-Compellent-HB-SBB2-E601-COMP-0952913-07-6GB-SAS-EBOD-Controller-OEM/124059629086?hash=item1ce287b61e:g:mGEAAOSwewJeK02~:
I've heard of people doing this with netapp shelves, and the expander and intelligence is basically all in the expander. I wouldn't try it with two different controllers, but it might be a cheap way of getting 6gb/s
 
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altmind

Active Member
Sep 23, 2018
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I would say that this DAS was a total waste of time and $150 :) 12Tb in 2U @ 200W is just not practical. At least I got some experience for not so much. And this shelve mount sucks, where I'm supposed to get a EIA-310 rack with non-Metric threaded holes in 2020? In legacy telecom rooms?

Re Dell Controller - the pins on this ESM are totally different, and dell controller was produced 5 years after the ESMs supplied, I doubt they are of the same era.
 
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Oddworld

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Jan 16, 2018
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I was in the market for a disk shelf. Lenovo SA120 would be preferable, but is like $500 by the time you buy caddies. I just didn't expect this to be a SAS1 expander.

Is SAS1 that bad?
 
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Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
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I bought three... please tell me this was a good financial decision.
I think so. The 12TB easystore drives go for this much and don't have near the performance or expandability. You can drop in 12x 12TB sas drives and have an instant 144TB enterprise quality array--you can't do anything like that with an easystore. :)
 

Kryak

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Jan 17, 2020
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Yes. I just checked with 2 SAS hbas, only 3gbps speed available.
HMM.. it's good enough for old small (1-2tb) SATA or SAS disks, but definitely not good for SSDs..
Sorry folks, my bad..
But it's still really good thing for home lab.
Make 2 arrays (Zraid 4+2) and it's will utilize full speed of shelf.
 

n17ikh

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Jul 12, 2019
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A SAS1 expander is fine for spinners, honestly. My SE3016 is only SAS1 and it hasn't ever caused me any issues in real workloads with more drives in it. Backups are a great use of shelves like this.
 
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