QUES: Direct HBA-to-HBA connection possible?

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jtreble

Member
Apr 16, 2013
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Ottawa, Canada
Question: can I directly connect (server chassis <-> disk chassis) two 8-port HBAs (i.e., not use an expander in the disk chassis)? I will only have 8 HDD in the disk chassis.


John Treble
Ottawa, Canada
 
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Biren78

Active Member
Jan 16, 2013
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You don't even need an expander nor a HBA. You can just cable from the server HBA to the external disk chassis.

dba on here made a STH main site series on all the possibilities with this.
 

jtreble

Member
Apr 16, 2013
93
10
8
Ottawa, Canada
Biren78,

Yes I saw dba's guide. Very good BTW. I was just curious to know if direct HBA-to-HBA connections were possible. Any gotchas?
 
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dba

Moderator
Feb 20, 2012
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San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
It's physically possible, of course, but you need software to make it work. That software would need to run on a CPU in the disk chassis to turn an HBA into a target instead of an initiator.

There was some work done in this called the Generic SCSI Target Subsystem for Linux. There are modules for LSI and Marvell HBAs, but they have languished in the alpha or beta phase for several years.

Question: can I directly connect (server chassis <-> disk chassis) two 8-port HBAs (i.e., not use an expander in the disk chassis)? I will only have 8 HDD in the disk chassis.


John Treble
Ottawa, Canada
 

jtreble

Member
Apr 16, 2013
93
10
8
Ottawa, Canada
It's physically possible, of course, but you need software to make it work. That software would need to run on a CPU in the disk chassis to turn an HBA into a target instead of an initiator.

There was some work done in this called the Generic SCSI Target Subsystem for Linux. There are modules for LSI and Marvell HBAs, but they have languished in the alpha or beta phase for several years.

Interesting. Thanks.


John Treble
Ottawa, Canada