Correct HBA for SuperMicro Chassis w/MPIO

[joltman]

I have two M1015 SAS adapters on their way to me. I already have a SuperMicro X8DTH-6f board running (check the config in my sig). I do not have a chassis for all this equipment. Currently, it's just sitting on a shelf in my basement. I would like to purchase a SuperMicro chassis for this motherboard. I want to have multipath to the drives. Can the M1015 do that? If so, how? 1 SFF-8087 from each card to the SAS Expander in the chassis? Or should I forgo that for a slightly cheaper model chassis without the SAS Expander? Currently, I'm using FreeNAS 8.2, but I'm considering jumping over to OmniOS or OpenIndiana. I'd install Napp-It either way. This is all for my home network, so it's not a huge issue to have MPIO, but it'd be nice. Thanks!

 

[Billy_nnn]

I have two M1015 SAS adapters on their way to me. I already have a SuperMicro X8DTH-6f board running (check the config in my sig). I do not have a chassis for all this equipment. Currently, it's just sitting on a shelf in my basement. I would like to purchase a SuperMicro chassis for this motherboard. I want to have multipath to the drives. Can the M1015 do that? If so, how? 1 SFF-8087 from each card to the SAS Expander in the chassis? Or should I forgo that for a slightly cheaper model chassis without the SAS Expander? Currently, I'm using FreeNAS 8.2, but I'm considering jumping over to OmniOS or OpenIndiana. I'd install Napp-It either way. This is all for my home network, so it's not a huge issue to have MPIO, but it'd be nice. Thanks!

You'd need to order a chassis with a dual port SAS backplane - SuperMicro seem to have both single and dual port versions available in various chassis. The single port backplane appears to be suffixed EL1 while the dual port, not surprisingly, carries the EL2 suffix in the part number.

As to whether dual porting is necessary - only you can answer that TBH.
You can't do it with SATA drives anyway, which forces you onto the considerably more expensive SAS enterprise drives (if you want dual porting that is). No problem with that, but you have to consider that dual porting an enterprise SAS drive is probably just as expensive as mirroring two consumer grade SATA drives - depends on use I suppose. In a commercial environment you may well plump for the former, while the latter approach may be the way to go for a typical home user.
Enterprise drives are supposed to have a higher MTBF, are designed to be used 24x7 and tend to have better warranty etc (though not always), but in the end only you can decide on whether they are worth the price premium for your intended use.

 

[MarkL]

As Billy said, the only relevant thing to ask first is are you actually going to be purchasing SAS drives for your 'home network'? Generally the answer is no, and that makes anything else irrelevant.

 

[patrickdk]

If this is a real home server, using sata drives, I would opt for the models ending in A, they use a 4 port sff-8087 plug, and will keep cable management down, the TQ models use normal sata cables, one per drive.

Like they explained, the E1 models are single port sas, and E2 are dual port sas. E2 are completely useless for use with sata disks. E1 is ok for sata, but with 3 hba's, you wouldn't want to use an expander.

 

[joltman]

Yeah, I'm aware of the diff SM chassis backplanes. I'd be purchasing SAS drives for the 24/7 use and longer MTBF. I use them at work, and I've had consumer drives crap out on me too often to really trust them anymore. So, I could use the 2 M1015s as MPIO to the E26 SM backplane. I'd use one port from each? Then could I add this cable CBL-0352L and plug the 8087 cables into the M1015s? That would give me external SAS capabilities right?

EDIT: The above cable part number is incorrect. This is the correct part number from SuperMicro: CBL-0168L

 

[unhappy_mage]

So, I could use the 2 M1015s as MPIO to the E26 SM backplane. I'd use one port from each? Then could I add this cable CBL-0352L and plug the 8087 cables into the M1015s? That would give me external SAS capabilities right?

Yep, one cable from each card to each the internal expander, then one cable to the external bracket. Then if you get another chassis, you can also have it multipathed.

 

[joltman]

I suppose this isn't ideal? If I wanted to expand to another JBOD, I'd want separate SAS HBAs?

 

[stevebaynet]

I suppose this isn't ideal? If I wanted to expand to another JBOD, I'd want separate SAS HBAs?

Depends on what kind of throughput you plan to put through it. you dont have to (but you may want to), you can just cascade more JBODS to the same HBA using the ports on the expander.

 

[MarkL]

Cascading is fine for any home situation... in real world you really aren't going to be moving THAT much data around that you would need more than 1gB/sec of bandwidth..