Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 - Rackmount DAS
- Thread starter Dajinn
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This won't work in Norway I guess (220v) as the listed item is the US (only) model.
I'll be looking for a deal on the 70F10003EU for use in Norway.
All according to table 2 in this link provided earlier in this thread.
Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 Storage Array > Lenovo Press
Edit:
I see that the psu is dual voltage, but then what's the "US only" part for?
Also, not possible to ask seller for shipping cost to Norway.
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Different power cable, different prices, different support, different marketing.
You can try to find mail forwarding company, sometimes it can be cheaper than to send directly, especially if you have many items with free US delivery: they can consolidate items into one box and send all together. But not in this particular case, probably, too big box to consolidate.
By the way, the last link - one PSU/one controller version.
I don't know if the models are the same as these, but Amazon has them new with free prime shipping for $239.
You have to click "Available from these sellers" to see the "Prime" one fulfilled by Amazon.
You have to click "Available from these sellers" to see the "Prime" one fulfilled by Amazon.
Just adding to the info (especially since I remember looking):
Recently got my sa120, attached at first through a Dell Perc H800, with generic (HGST) SATA drives. RAID worked fine although Lenovo utility was unable to see the enclosure for fan control. Cross flashed the updated LSI 9280 firmware onto it and no change (also tried lower firmware versions). Picked up an (actual) LSI 9280-8e and now have full enclosure control as well as working RAID. Setup summary:
SA120: 1 controller, 1 PSU
RAID Card: LSI 9280-8e
Drives: 12 HGST SATA drives (HDS724040ALE640)
Fan (Enclosure) Control: Yes
As far as I can tell all SATA drives should work in the enclosure as long as your only looking to use them on the 1st controller module (since only SAS drives support the multiple paths controller 2 would need to utilize). Only con this DAS has (at least in my case) is a slightly loose PSU socket although this can be easily rectified (not mention it isn't moving much).
EDIT: Also wanted to mention I found no way to control the fans from the serial interface. You can view information about them but that's about it
Recently got my sa120, attached at first through a Dell Perc H800, with generic (HGST) SATA drives. RAID worked fine although Lenovo utility was unable to see the enclosure for fan control. Cross flashed the updated LSI 9280 firmware onto it and no change (also tried lower firmware versions). Picked up an (actual) LSI 9280-8e and now have full enclosure control as well as working RAID. Setup summary:
SA120: 1 controller, 1 PSU
RAID Card: LSI 9280-8e
Drives: 12 HGST SATA drives (HDS724040ALE640)
Fan (Enclosure) Control: Yes
As far as I can tell all SATA drives should work in the enclosure as long as your only looking to use them on the 1st controller module (since only SAS drives support the multiple paths controller 2 would need to utilize). Only con this DAS has (at least in my case) is a slightly loose PSU socket although this can be easily rectified (not mention it isn't moving much).
EDIT: Also wanted to mention I found no way to control the fans from the serial interface. You can view information about them but that's about it
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Can you say something about the fan noise at the lowest speed?
Also, from this thread, this should work to controll the fans without other tools than sg_ses which is ported to FreeBSD, Solaris and Windows.
SA120 - fancontroll by AndrewX192
Fan noise is overall very quiet, much quieter than any other DAS or SAN I've seen/used in the past (MD1200, MD3000, MD1000, DotHill, etc.). I have mine in a 24U TripLite rack in the kitchen (city apartment) and unless you're in the kitchen you can't even hear anything, compared to the MD1000 it replaced which we could hear in the living room and bedrooms even with the door closed. That being said it still is a DAS (business/enterprise) enclosure so you will hear at least a slight hum as they're not made with silence in mind. I'll grab a more accurate (dB) reading when I get back home and edit the post (assuming I remember). FYI, with fan speeds on 1 (lowest) and constant reads with daily (intermittent) writes temperatures on the drives stick at ~ 36C - 37C with some drives hitting 39C.
AndrewX192's control app should work with anything the Lenovo Utility (windows only) would work with. Cards such as the H800 which don't present the enclosure/drives correctly to the OS would still be be unable to control the fans even with the fanspeed utility.
EDIT: ~35 dB (measured via phone) when about 3 feet away from the rack
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Thanks!
Great to hear that the disks keeps those low temperatures even with the fans at 1.
I'll probably use it with a LSI SAS 9300-8e in a Solaris esxi vm.
That should give me full info and controll over each disk and the fans as far as I know.
All good and valid points that I'm aware of.
But given the disks STANirvanaIND uses, location of the DAS and the fan speed, those temperatures are great.
As a comparison, I've got two HGST HDN724040ALE640 4TB disks in my desktop, ambient is 22C and disk is 41C and 43C at the moment. Directly in front I've got two Noctua 14cm fans spinning at 500 rpm.
They are hot disks and this is "normal" operating temperatures as far as I know, not sure if HD Sentinel 4.71 reports the temp wrong. My two other WD40EFRX-68WT0N0 4TB disks reports 33C and 35C.
So again, I think STANirvanaIND disk temperatures given the fan speeds are great.
But I do agree to your points that disk temp is disk dependent and also depends on ambient temp.
Just to provide some more info in case people are interested.
I have 4 of these JBODs with dual IO controllers as well as the the SSD cages in the back.
I purchased the SSD cages for having the extra space for SSD drives to use as a caching layer for Storage Spaces Direct on Windows.
I discovered that the negotiated link speed for any SSD drive that I put in there is SATA II or 3Gbps instead of SATA III or 6Gbps which makes it useless for any caching use case.
I was able to use the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for the drives and put them in the front and the same drives are able to talk SATA III speeds.
I have a case open with Lenovo but at this point I am not having any luck.
I do have these connected to my nodes through LSI SAS9207-8E flashed with the latest firmware in IT mode.
The SSD drives I am using right now are: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5” SATA III
I did try Samsung 840Evo and another Samsung SSD drive with the same results.
I have also tested connecting two nodes to the same enclosure for Failover Clustering configuration but to do this you need to be using SAS drives potentially with MPIO enabled if you're using Windows for multi-pathing which rules out the usage of the SATA SSD drive cages.
I have 4 of these JBODs with dual IO controllers as well as the the SSD cages in the back.
I purchased the SSD cages for having the extra space for SSD drives to use as a caching layer for Storage Spaces Direct on Windows.
I discovered that the negotiated link speed for any SSD drive that I put in there is SATA II or 3Gbps instead of SATA III or 6Gbps which makes it useless for any caching use case.
I was able to use the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for the drives and put them in the front and the same drives are able to talk SATA III speeds.
I have a case open with Lenovo but at this point I am not having any luck.
I do have these connected to my nodes through LSI SAS9207-8E flashed with the latest firmware in IT mode.
The SSD drives I am using right now are: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5” SATA III
I did try Samsung 840Evo and another Samsung SSD drive with the same results.
I have also tested connecting two nodes to the same enclosure for Failover Clustering configuration but to do this you need to be using SAS drives potentially with MPIO enabled if you're using Windows for multi-pathing which rules out the usage of the SATA SSD drive cages.
I don't have a way to verify it without having the card it self but I don't see why not especially if all you are trying to do is to use it as just a HBA for exposing your disks directly to the OS.
so i could possibly get the internal sas to external sas cable and hook it up?
will the lenovo software be able to see the disk?
I've never tried these cables but they seem to be made for this purpose.
This is not my recommendation and I have never personally tried this my self but again I don't see why this would not work:
2m 28AWG External Mini SAS 26pin (SFF-8088) Male to Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male Cable - Black - Monoprice.com
If you had enough space for a bracket to be installed I would go with something like this to be a bit more elegant but you don't have to:
Double PCI Mini SAS SFF-8087 to 4i SFF 8088 internal to external conversion card | eBay
Are you saying that with both PSU's connected, the FAN speed is correctly auto adjusted lower as long as the temperature is low enough?
Running to my basement now.... hooking up the secondary PSUs in all 4 enclosures
I love coming to this forum and learning new things every time