Help explain - Fibre Channel Drives

[ephmynus]

Who knows much about these. At first glance, it appears this is what is put in large enterprise backup systems but I'm astounded at how cheap these drives are. I have currently been looking at storage and backup solutions for my home and I keep coming back to look at these drives but haven't taken the plunge because I don't know much about them. Does a basic setup just include the drives and the HBA or more? Can anyone explain why these are so cheap and whether or not these would be a good idea for creating a stand alone storage computer. Also, does anyone have any recos for further reading?

Thanks

 

[unhappy_mage]

Further reading, I guess. A working configuration would include an HBA, some cables, possibly a backplane, and some drives. None of this is cheap. Cables start at $40 or so per drive (on Froogle anyways), and HBAs appear to be around $600.

In short, unless you've got this stuff sitting around, it's not cost effective for single-user loads.

 

[draksia]

You will need an HBA perferably a copper one not optical because a an optical to copper adaptor is expensive.

You will need either a backplane a t-cards to hook up the drives.

Something like would work really well

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Fibre-Fiber...oryZ3753QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Fibre drives are really just scsi ones with a slightly different interface. Older drives are not really that fast at all but new ones can really scream.

edit: I have an 18 drive enclosure that I really don't want anymore. I would be happy to let it go for the right price. It is a 4U box that top loads 18 drives. It has dual 600W power supplies and SES support. I belive I even have an HBA and cable for it. If you are serious this is the way to go.

 

[ephmynus]

Do you have to have a backplane or just the HBA? I wasn't sure if you could daisy chain these drives or not and then just take one cable into the HBA. The main reason I am asking is because of future scalability. I regularly see these drives go for around $10 or so for a 74gb drive. I don't need something super fast, just large and reliable.

 

[draksia]

I personally don't have a backplane but I have a full enclosure with hotswap rails and everything.

I am trying to find a good picture of it.

 

[cjcox]

Fibre is point to point (usually)... you can have a switch (I suppose one might call it a backplane). Fibre HBAs are $20 on ebay. Cables will likely cost >$20 each. It's not that bad.

 

[draksia]

Fibre is point to point (usually)... you can have a switch (I suppose one might call it a backplane). Fibre HBAs are $20 on ebay. Cables will likely cost >$20 each. It's not that bad.

FIbre channel is usually not point to point(FC-P2P) it is usually setup as a arbitrated loop(FC-AL) in which many devices are placed on one loop with a maximum device count of 127. This type of setup is what a back plane or t-cards would normally use. The other setup is switched fabric(FC-SW) in which many connection and switch form a network like setup which can support upto 2^24 devices.

If you want to make a fibre setup easily you want something like this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Xyratex-Fibre-C...ryZ11209QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/SGI-TP9400-10-B...ryZ44994QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It has everything need to run the drives but the hba and the cable. Its a little expensive but it save you alot of work in the long run. Just fill with drives of your choice and then connect to your computer and your done.

For hba make sure you get one with a copper port not an optical it save you lots of headaches too. I recomend a qlogic qla2100 for basic 1Gb connectivity. You will also need a hssdc to db9 cable.