What are my options to expand my RAID array?

smidley

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
114
I have a home server that I use for storing various things and I'm getting to the point where I need to expand it's storage. Here's my current configuration:

Case: Norco 4220 (holds 20 hot swap drives)
RAID Card: LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-16i
OS Drive: 120gig SSD plugged into motherboard SATA port.
Storage Pool Drives (Plugged into RAID Card): 14x 2TB drives in a RAID 6

My case has 5 backplanes on it. The Raid card has only 4 SAS ports, and each of those is connected to one of the backplanes in the case. Therefore I have 1 backplane that is unplugged and unused. Each backplane connection supports 4 drives.

What are my options for expanding my raid? Since I've already used all the connections on my raid card, I can't really hook up an expander. I have 6 more slots free in the case, but my raid card only has capacity to add two more drives.
 
Use an expander. Yes, the expander will use one of the ports on your RAID card, but it will create so many more SAS ports for you to use. I think the HP has like nine? Expander is a good simple expansion for your current setup.
 
How can I start using an expander now though since I've already used all the ports on my raid card?
 
If your raid controller is intelligent, it won't care if you move the drives a bit, but maybe it will. I guess worst case you'd have to re-initialize your array.

You plug one SAS cable to your RAID card, the other end goes into the expander. Then you plug all your backplanes, etc into the expander. Think of an expander like a network switch.
 
Ok, that sounds like a good plan. Anyone have any idea what SAS expander would be compatible with my card?
 
Any of them. Start with HP SAS Expander. It's typically one of the better.
 
Is the 14x2TB all one RAID array?

If that is several individual arrays, can you replace the 2TB drives one at a time and just increase the capacity of the arrays you already have? Or do you need a new array?
 
Back
Top