This looks wrong, why not just use something like a LSI 9200-8e and skip all the swapping.
There’s literally a JBOD version of those supermicro cases
Yes, there are, but under 600$ are not find. The two supermicro CSE836 cases were 350$ both, as much as sas2/sas3 backplanes could be found on eBay.
Thanks to everyone who answered. I didn’t provide any details because as the saying goes, one picture is more than 1000 words worth…
Yes, the “System 1” is a JBOD with a SAS/SATA 16 Ports backplane, that will run a mix of sata/sas/ssd’s hard drives. This must go with no witchcrafting to the “System 2”, as … pictured.
I also consider a 4 x 8644 external HBA, but until now I only managed to find some LSI/Broadcom/Avago cards that are too hot and maybe fake chinese ones, with no guarantee of data/firmware/functionality. And the prices are also too high.
I,m already over my buget.
Have you seen this video about the combinations possible with supermicro backplanes?
Yes, this should work fine. SAS does not care what path the signal takes - it doesn’t differentiate between internal and external. You can run internal over external cables without issue. I’ve done similar by turning my old NAS chassis into a DAS, and connecting it to her internal ports of the HBA. And you can connect SAS or SATA drives to the DAS (system 1).
This would work but backwards.
Since system 2 is the one with the raid/HBA card I assume that would house your brains.
Looking at the end-product, 16x SATA connections. It would be a waste of cables/money to do it the way you pictured.
It would be sufficient to run a single 4e 8644 port from system head to JBOD, there you could use an expander to achieve the 16i needed. This way you would have 6Gx4=24G/3GB or ≈250MB per drive. Could do the same with 8e, point is you are maxing out the 12 drives with 4e don’t need 16e and associated cables.
Depending on your future needs you could go with 8e/16e in the head and have those extra ports in case in the future you want to add another JBOD (1 per 4e).
PS since you head appears to have drives, you should source an external card from the get-go instead of an internal to then connect cables to an external converter. I’m assuming you pictured an additional card and not the one running those disks.
Hope that was clear enough.
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