This summarizes what I've learned on JBOD boxes.
I've personally got 3 JBOD boxes, running off a Lsi 9285cv-8e with P20 firmware, and drives set in JBOD mode. I run H-V 2016, and storage spaces, with some drives passed through directly to VMs and most drives in storage pool. I do not dual link the card/controllers to try and get 12gb/s, I use a single cable.
Box 1: Homemade JBOD. This at V2, using an intel RES2SV240 board, and the power supply jumpered green-black to be on all the time. V1 was using an HP expander, which I had to power through a mining PCI rig, so I moved to the Intel expander. No issues, backplane is only sata so I can only speak to sata drives in this box. Chassis is a 2u 12x 3.5 box from Home -OEM, ODM and COTS Server, Storage and Chassis Solutions - AIC
Box 2: Xyratex HB/XB-1235. I run 12x 2tb sas drives, but sata drives work fine. If used without an interposer, the unit will alarm everytime it is power cycled, the alarm can be silenced at the front panel. Drives just appear to the LSI, can reformat 520->512 if needed. The xyratex reports power supply status, fan speeds, etc to the raid card. Make sure the controller is the model with three mini sas ports, not the unit with ethernet ports if you are trying for JBOD!!! The input is the single connector, the paired ones are both outputs. The top controller is the primary/used for SATA drives.
Box 3: Netapp DS2446. 24x2.5 2u. I used this for a bit, have had it offline since I moved to a new server with integrated 2.5" bays. I'll go back to it as ssd costs drop and I retire the spinners in the above 2 boxes. This is a 2u box with 2x SAS IOM6 interfaces and 2x power supplies. This generation of netapp box includes the DS4243 and 4246 (4u, 24x3.5, 3 or 6gb/s) and the rarer 4486 unit (4u, 48x3.5 using 2 disks in a long tray). The 4u units can take 4 IOMS and 4 power supplies. Netapp uses a QSFP connector, which is the worst part about using this-need to buy a relatively expensive SFF-8088 to QSFP cable to use. While a DS2446 can be bought for ~$80 complete, the cable can be $65 or so... I think this reported power supply status and fan speeds to the raid card, but can't remember.
The only issue I had with this running SATA drives was they they only are visible to controller #1; as should be expected. The two SAS pathways are completely separated in the box, so a sata drive is only connected to controller #1 (top controller).
The Xyratex and netapp controllers appear pin compatible, but I haven't tried swapping. I'm also told that most 4243 units will run@6gb if an IOM6 is used, but some backplanes will not work. I wouldn't count on a 4243 to support a >2tb drive.
Above is all what I've personally tried, below is what I've found online:
Xyratex OEM'd stuff for a bunch of people; netapp, racktop, microsoft storsimple (white!), dell compellent, hp 3par(Yellow!), LaCie (orange!), I'm sure there are others. The xyratex powersupply V is pretty distinctive when seen from the side. I strongly suspect that all of these will work the same as nice JBOD boxes, but I haven't tested them personally.
Now, if I wanted a 24x2.5 box today, I'd look at either the netapp 2246, which is ~$80 on ebay complete, or the dell version, for two reasons: The dell unit (SC220) is priced a little more, but uses standard sff-8088 cables, vs the netapp qsfp cables.
Note that Dell and others also offered iSCSI controllers for these boxes, which are going to be a lot more work to get running, but the dumb JBOD controllers are pretty cheap. Also note that it is not required to use dual controllers on these, but it is required to use a blanking plate if not using dual(or quad for the 4u) units.
There are two different variants of the 2.5" chassis from the back, one uses 2u height power supplies and has the IOMs in the middle, the other uses 1u height power supplies. I do not know if there are significant differences, but suspect the 1u supply version is newer.
I've personally got 3 JBOD boxes, running off a Lsi 9285cv-8e with P20 firmware, and drives set in JBOD mode. I run H-V 2016, and storage spaces, with some drives passed through directly to VMs and most drives in storage pool. I do not dual link the card/controllers to try and get 12gb/s, I use a single cable.
Box 1: Homemade JBOD. This at V2, using an intel RES2SV240 board, and the power supply jumpered green-black to be on all the time. V1 was using an HP expander, which I had to power through a mining PCI rig, so I moved to the Intel expander. No issues, backplane is only sata so I can only speak to sata drives in this box. Chassis is a 2u 12x 3.5 box from Home -OEM, ODM and COTS Server, Storage and Chassis Solutions - AIC
Box 2: Xyratex HB/XB-1235. I run 12x 2tb sas drives, but sata drives work fine. If used without an interposer, the unit will alarm everytime it is power cycled, the alarm can be silenced at the front panel. Drives just appear to the LSI, can reformat 520->512 if needed. The xyratex reports power supply status, fan speeds, etc to the raid card. Make sure the controller is the model with three mini sas ports, not the unit with ethernet ports if you are trying for JBOD!!! The input is the single connector, the paired ones are both outputs. The top controller is the primary/used for SATA drives.
Box 3: Netapp DS2446. 24x2.5 2u. I used this for a bit, have had it offline since I moved to a new server with integrated 2.5" bays. I'll go back to it as ssd costs drop and I retire the spinners in the above 2 boxes. This is a 2u box with 2x SAS IOM6 interfaces and 2x power supplies. This generation of netapp box includes the DS4243 and 4246 (4u, 24x3.5, 3 or 6gb/s) and the rarer 4486 unit (4u, 48x3.5 using 2 disks in a long tray). The 4u units can take 4 IOMS and 4 power supplies. Netapp uses a QSFP connector, which is the worst part about using this-need to buy a relatively expensive SFF-8088 to QSFP cable to use. While a DS2446 can be bought for ~$80 complete, the cable can be $65 or so... I think this reported power supply status and fan speeds to the raid card, but can't remember.
The only issue I had with this running SATA drives was they they only are visible to controller #1; as should be expected. The two SAS pathways are completely separated in the box, so a sata drive is only connected to controller #1 (top controller).
The Xyratex and netapp controllers appear pin compatible, but I haven't tried swapping. I'm also told that most 4243 units will run@6gb if an IOM6 is used, but some backplanes will not work. I wouldn't count on a 4243 to support a >2tb drive.
Above is all what I've personally tried, below is what I've found online:
Xyratex OEM'd stuff for a bunch of people; netapp, racktop, microsoft storsimple (white!), dell compellent, hp 3par(Yellow!), LaCie (orange!), I'm sure there are others. The xyratex powersupply V is pretty distinctive when seen from the side. I strongly suspect that all of these will work the same as nice JBOD boxes, but I haven't tested them personally.
Now, if I wanted a 24x2.5 box today, I'd look at either the netapp 2246, which is ~$80 on ebay complete, or the dell version, for two reasons: The dell unit (SC220) is priced a little more, but uses standard sff-8088 cables, vs the netapp qsfp cables.
Note that Dell and others also offered iSCSI controllers for these boxes, which are going to be a lot more work to get running, but the dumb JBOD controllers are pretty cheap. Also note that it is not required to use dual controllers on these, but it is required to use a blanking plate if not using dual(or quad for the 4u) units.
There are two different variants of the 2.5" chassis from the back, one uses 2u height power supplies and has the IOMs in the middle, the other uses 1u height power supplies. I do not know if there are significant differences, but suspect the 1u supply version is newer.
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