Will this work to connect my JBODs?

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adminmat

Member
Sep 1, 2019
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Hello, this is my first post. Please excuse me if it's not the appropriate forum.

I'm putting a couple HDD JBOD enclosures in my DIY cabinet rack. I'm a little confused as of how to best connect the JBOD to the server which will set a few feet away.

Here's a pic of the mini server cabinet. Some more info on the build here.

I've will use (2) 4-bay iStarUSA Trayless HDD Hot-swap Racks. The server is Micro-ATX in a small case, running UnRaid, set next to this cabinet. The cable will have to run 4 feet from server to JBODs.

So I was thinking of this method (in order from Server PC --> the iStar enclosure SATA ports):

Method 1: an LSI 9200-8e 6Gbps in the server 8 lane PCIe slot --> (2) SFF-8088 cables running --> an SFF-8087 to External 8088 mini adapter --> SFF-8087 to SATA 3 breakout cables --> the (8) SATA ports on the JBOD boxes.

Does this make sense?

Also, I'm a little confused on how best to power the iStar JBOD enclosures. They have a built-in fan controller and LED control already. They just need 2 SATA power runs per box (total of 4 SATA ports to power)

Is there any way to run power from my server PC? or must I add a PSU at the JBOD enclosures? If so how do I power it on and off?

Thanks for your help.
 

Deslok

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2015
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deslok.dyndns.org
What's the end use? Is something like the RocketStor 6418S acceptable from a budget standpoint? or would a used piece of enterprise gear(which has an added noise cost) be acceptable? What you're suggesting will work technically, and there's ways to do it, power inside the tower being better than power from your server for a few reasons.
Patrick has covered some of it before and it's worth reading if DIY is your end goal
https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-diy-cheap-low-cost-jbod-enclosures-raid/
https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-build-jbod-das-enclosure-save-iteration-2/
 

adminmat

Member
Sep 1, 2019
30
10
8
What's the end use? Is something like the RocketStor 6418S acceptable from a budget standpoint? or would a used piece of enterprise gear(which has an added noise cost) be acceptable? What you're suggesting will work technically, and there's ways to do it, power inside the tower being better than power from your server for a few reasons.
Patrick has covered some of it before and it's worth reading if DIY is your end goal
https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-diy-cheap-low-cost-jbod-enclosures-raid/
https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-build-jbod-das-enclosure-save-iteration-2/
I'll be using these disks for all my data storage on an UnRaid server. When I built my little server cabinet I left just enough room for a Synology DS918+ as I was expecting just to buy that. Then I went further down the rabbit hole and now will build a new server from scratch. I want to keep all the disks in the little cabinet.

The space available is marked in pink here: Imgur

This is a 10" rack. The RocketStor will not fit.

If the data connection will work then I just need to figure out the power. Was hoping i could run extensions from my server's PSU over to this but I can't find a good solution for this.