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Budget SAS Expander?

T

TigerLord

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
1,085
Anyone can suggest a budget SAS expander?

I just finished building my NAS (ZFS/OpenIndiana) but with only 6 SATA ports on it, that leaves 5 for the actual storage HDD.

Or is there another way to add in more HDD that I am not thinking of?
 
If you are using zfs or any non windows OS, I would stay away from expanders if possible and use a SAS HBA instead because on any of these systems you most likely will not be using HW raid. Or do you not have any PCIe slots on your motherboard?
 
You'd want a 9211-8i with IT firmware over a 9240 if you are going to use ZFS/Software RAID... same price. I have two in my ZFS build and they are great.

However that is probably overkill for only a few drives.. That PEXSATA24E would probably be fine to add a few extra ports..
 
drescherjm said:
If you are using zfs or any non windows OS, I would stay away from expanders if possible and use a SAS HBA instead because on any of these systems you most likely will not be using HW raid. Or do you not have any PCIe slots on your motherboard?
Click to expand...

If he's using ZFS, why would SAS HBAs and SAS expanders be mutually exclusive?
 
Unless you are limited to PCIe slots or want to use 38 port expanders (and a crazy amount of hard drives) it will be cheaper (and way better in performance) to use multiple 8 or 16 port SAS HBAs. Remember that a 16 port HBA will be cheaper than an expander.
 
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MarkL said:
Make sure you install the IT firmware.. link
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I wouldn't have known otherwise! Is there a direct link to the firmware in that blog post? I can`t seem to find it, only explanations.

I imagine it would be easier if I first popped the card in my main Windows 7 machine, flashed the firmware, then installed it in the NAS? Or is there a trouble free way of flashing firmware from OpenIndiana?
 
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