HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

The ones on Amazon are all SFF-8087 host to SFF-8484 backplane. I don't have a Fry's near me :(

I bit the bullet, I'll let you guys know how it turns out.
 
izx said:
While we're on about Areca alternatives, any thoughts on the Highpoint SAS controllers using the IOP348s (RocketRaid 432x) series? I know a lot of folks (including me) have historically had no love lost for Highpoint, but has anyone tried them with the HP or Chenbro expanders? I ask because they are significantly cheaper than the equivalent 1680s, though from comments I've seen about poor tech support/lack of firmware it seems you get what you pay for.
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I picked up a 4320 during a decent sale at New Egg for < 300 and have been quite happy with it in terms of general performance & reliability. I started with a 6x1TB R5 and migrated to my current 7x2TB R6. During that process, I converted a 2x2TB R0 to the 7x2TB R6 and while the process took 5 days, it completed the task successfully and without data loss, so mission accomplished. ;)

I have not tried it with an expander though I'm probably within a few months of needing to do so.

To your last points in bold, I can absolutely confirm that the tech support is horrid and the firmware is very so-so. Basic functionality like SMTP notification is impossible to set up using any publicly available internet provider and any attempts at getting HighPoint to provide a meaningful response via their support portal are totally fruitless.

I've opened 3-4 tickets with them since picking up the 4320 and in each case found that the information I've received here and in other similar forums FAR outweighs the knowledge of anyone in their support department (that comparison assumes I even receive a meaningful response from HighPoint, which isn't a guarantee either)

Nevertheless, if you go into it knowing what you're getting and don't have especially demanding RAID requirements (i.e. I don't see myself going much past ~12 2TB disks in the next couple of years), the device appears to works very well, so overall I'm happy with the purchase.
 
I'm using a Highpoint 4320 with a Chenbro SAS expander without issue. You can see my build in the showoff thread in this forum. One thing I like about the Highpoint is the ease by which you can safely unplug and plug arrays (online array roaming), this is a feature missing from a lot of raid cards and is particularly useful for JBODs that are only on periodically for backups.

For cheap SAS cables, I usually ordered from the 3ware store, but since LSI ate them up not sure if they still run their own store or not. There's always fleabay too.
 
The 28 port version (really 16 ports as it's counting the external ports as 8 and the input port as 4). I had to jumper it to old firmware mode though.
 
I got the PE-2SD1-R10 board from Orbit Micro today. Price was $41.85 plus $10 shipping. I didn't have much hope it would work out as a way of powering the HP SAS Expander, since this board was designed for a completely different purpose, but I was wrong. It works. In case it's not obvious to everyone, the point here is turning a server case into a drive cage to expand an existing storage server with a minimum of expense and complexity, and doing it for a few hundred instead of the thousands it costs for a prefab unit.

I mounted the board to the standoffs in a Norco 4020 case, installed the HP SAS Expander, plugged in the 24-pin connector from the PSU, and plugged in the 2-pin "power switch" header from the front panel of the case, but it wouldn't turn on. I figured out that by jumpering the red "ATXCTL1" header on the board, it would turn on. This means, for now, that the power switch on my power supply is going to have to function as the "On/Off" switch for the case until I do some more testing.

I connected five SFF-8087 to SATA breakout cables between the HP expander and the Norco backplane, then connected the HP expander to an Areca 1680 card in another case via SFF-8088 cable, and voila - all 20 drives attached to the expander were visible to the RAID card. There is a 3-pin fan header on the PE-2SD1-R10 board, so I'm also going to attach a 40x40x10mm fan to the heatsink of the HP Expander. The fan does drop the heatsink temperature significantly.

Even with the power switch issue I still consider it a win, because its a lot simpler, cheaper and consumes less power than running an old motherboard/CPU/memory just to power the expander card.

PARTS: Norco 4020 ($280), PE-2SD1-R10 board ($52), 750W PSU ($75), HP SAS Expander ($150), SFF-8088 cable ($12) = TOTAL $569, "JUST ADD DRIVES!"

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Looks like it fits the standard motherboard standoffs? Is that the case or did you drill those yourself?
 
I didn't do any drilling or modding, those were standard positions I used for the standoffs.
 
Spiffy. Guess I'll have to order one. I have a feeling the power button doesn't work because you're lacking the CPU card, but that's just a guess. Should reply to my PM so we can get everything sorted out by the way...
 
Finally found some time to get the pictures organized and scaled that I took of the Chenbro RM91250 case and the modding I did so far. I'm going to try and put them online tomorrow.

Where is the best place to post my work logs?

I'm still trying to settle on a good name for this server :) Any suggestions?

Everything has been ordered and most parts are in however I am still waiting for some of the parts, especially the two HP SAS Expanders. Hopefully sometime towards the end of next week I can start putting it all together...
 
Blue Fox said:
Spiffy. Guess I'll have to order one. I have a feeling the power button doesn't work because you're lacking the CPU card, but that's just a guess. Should reply to my PM so we can get everything sorted out by the way...
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You may be right about the CPU card, but like I said I wouldn't care if I never find a way to toggle the power with the front panel button - the system will spend 99.99% of its life powered on and with the drives spun down and will rarely if ever have to be powered off, so having to reach behind the case to flip the power switch on the PSU on every rare occasion is just fine by me.

The idea of running a motherboard/CPU/memory just to power the expander always rubbed me the wrong way, so with this power board I get a warm fuzzy feeling. The same feeling Oprah gets when she sticks her fingers into a giant birthday cake.
 
Will one of these HP SAS expanders work with the LSI 9260-4i?

I'd like to revamp my Norco box and just happen to have that LSI card around.
 
I tried it with my 9280-8e and it didn't like it very well. When I was testing it over at nitrobass' place, we tried it and it caused lots of problems. You can read up on it in this thread if you search for it.
 
odditory said:
PARTS: Norco 4020 ($280), PE-2SD1-R10 board ($52), 750W PSU ($75), HP SAS Expander ($150), SFF-8088 cable ($12) = TOTAL $569, "JUST ADD DRIVES!"

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4_39.jpg

3_50.jpg
Click to expand...

Doh! I think those pictures just made me want to order one. If only I wasn't going to be in Vancouver then Amsterdam over the next two weeks!

All I'm thinking about is putting the board in the last or second to last expansion slot and getting a lot of real estate back.
 
odditory said:
I got the PE-2SD1-R10 board from Orbit Micro today. Price was $41.85 plus $10 shipping. I didn't have much hope it would work out as a way of powering the HP SAS Expander, since this board was designed for a completely different purpose, but I was wrong. It works. In case it's not obvious to everyone, the point here is is turning a server chassis into a drive cage with a minimum of expense and complexity to expand an existing storage server, and doing it for hundreds instead of the thousands it costs for prefab.

I mounted the board to the standoffs in a Norco 4020 case, installed the HP SAS Expander, plugged in the power connector from the PSU, and plugged in the 2-pin "power switch" header from the front panel of the case, but it wouldn't turn on. I figured out that by jumpering the red "ATXCTL1" header on the board, it would turn on. This means, for now, that the power switch on my power supply is going to have to function as the "On/Off" switch for the case until I do some more testing.

I connected five SFF-8087 to SATA breakout cables between the HP expander and the Norco backplane, then connected the HP expander to an Areca 1680 card in another case via SFF-8088 cable, and voila - all 20 drives attached to the expander were visible to the RAID card. There is a 3-pin fan header on the PE-2SD1-R10 board, so I'm also going to attach a 40x40x10mm fan to the heatsink of the HP Expander. The fan does drop the heatsink temperature significantly.

Even with the power switch issue I still consider it a win, because its a lot simpler, cheaper and consumes less power than running an old motherboard/CPU/memory just to power the expander card.

PARTS: Norco 4020 ($280), PE-2SD1-R10 board ($52), 750W PSU ($75), HP SAS Expander ($150), SFF-8088 cable ($12) = TOTAL $569, "JUST ADD DRIVES!"
Click to expand...

That's awesome, props to you for actually getting one and testing it out. I was mainly worried about the screw mounting points and the formfactor. It's great that it fits and works! :)
 
pjkenned said:
Doh! I think those pictures just made me want to order one. If only I wasn't going to be in Vancouver then Amsterdam over the next two weeks!

All I'm thinking about is putting the board in the last or second to last expansion slot and getting a lot of real estate back.
Click to expand...

You might want to order now because it took over a week to get it - it was backordered. I don't know if thats still the case but it could be that they don't stock these and instead order one at a time from manufacturer.

Looking at the standoff holes, I think you're right that the power board could also be mounted in the far left of the chassis, such that the expander card would occupy the last PCI slot of the case, however not sure what difference it would make - what would you want to "free up real estate" for?
 
I was planning on using the bare mATX as a power board for the second 4U. If it fits in the last slot, I could easily stick a mATX + i3 or i5 combo in there with a PicoPSU. Alternatively, I was thinking that if I really wanted to, I bet it would be fairly easy to add more non-hot-swap drives to the 4U, using more ports on the HP SAS Expander. Would just be something to do for fun.

To be clear, this is more of a play around thing to satisfy my own curiosity.
 
I am still in a need for a 2.02 card to Greece, and i am willing to pay a reasonable premium to anybody that wishes to send me one. Of course if a group buy is arranged i am willing to participate, as long as i get a card in the end :)
 
Wut do we need for a group buy?
someone to pay for cards (paypal?) & ship cards ( pack, forms, ship)?
someone to flash them if needed?

Wut if there's a defective card? contigency plan? maybe everyone overseas should buy 2 :-D

I suppose I would be willing to handle shipping stuff if needed...
 
Bookmage said:
Wut do we need for a group buy?
someone to pay for cards (paypal?) & ship cards ( pack, forms, ship)?
someone to flash them if needed?

Wut if there's a defective card? contigency plan? maybe everyone overseas should buy 2 :-D

I suppose I would be willing to handle shipping stuff if needed...
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We'd need a US address for bill to and ship to information, either via confirmed paypal payment or a CC. Someone there would have to handle shipping after that point.

Our cards are tested and flash upgraded to 2.02 right now, and include a 90 day DOA guarantee as well.
 
Hello, I'm new to this forum, and I read this thread completely. Would someone happen to know if the HP SAS Expander would work (or would be willing to try it) on a LSI SAS, series 3000, 4-port with 1604e storport (controller used on ASUS p5bv/e-sas motherboard) ? That question may sound stupid, but there is only one PCI-e on this board so there is only room for the expander. And it would be great should it work. ;)
 
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I'm using mine with no problems with the LSI SAS3442E-R, an LSI 1068-based controller (the p5bv/e-sas uses a 1064, a version of the same chip with fewer ports). Other people have reported failure with (as far as I can tell) the same controller. So, YMMV.

You could get one of the PE-2SD1-R10 boards odditory showed off to power the expander if it doesn't work with the onboard controller. It'd be icky to mount, and power would be tricky, but it might be a solution.
 
unhappy_mage said:
I'm using mine with no problems with the LSI SAS3442E-R, an LSI 1068-based controller (the p5bv/e-sas uses a 1064, a version of the same chip with fewer ports). Other people have reported failure with (as far as I can tell) the same controller. So, YMMV.
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So that is making me really want to see if I can get it working on the Supermicro X8ST3-F's onboard LSI 1068E controller. It didn't work upon first startup, but seems to be worth another shot.
 
Somebody can chime in if this works well with it, but we have a open box Adaptec 5805 8 port card coming in at the end of this week.

Also have a 2420SA complete.

PM me for more info
 
SynergyDustin said:
Somebody can chime in if this works well with it, but we have a open box Adaptec 5805 8 port card
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5805 is already listed in the FAQ as only working with HP expanders that are at firmware 1.00. Until Adaptec updates their firmware I don't really recommend a 5805 since it means the drives being stuck at Sata-1 (1.5Gbps) and so its not the most future-proof combination.
 
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are you talking about a sas cable if so i was able to find a SFF8484 -> SFF8087 cable. as in SF8484 on controller side SFF8087 on backplane/expander side.
 
lcdguy said:
are you talking about a sas cable if so i was able to find a SFF8484 -> SFF8087 cable. as in SF8484 on controller side SFF8087 on backplane/expander side.
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I was talking about if anyone has qualified, or at least tried, using a PERC 5 or 6 (I or E) with the HP SAS Expander.
 
lcdguy said:
well if someone want's to send me one to try i can certainly test it with my 5i :D
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I've got a PERC 6/i for trial as well :D

xnoodle had said he bit the bullet and was gonna let us know. Just was wondering if he had any new word on it! Eagerly awaiting his return lol.
 
Just to put an offer out there.

If anyone would like me to test their controller before making a purchase I am willing to do so.

Just PM me and we will make the arrangements. :)
 
We're down to about 6 SAS Expanders in our stock as of this morning. I have been told to expect that the cost is going up on them next month as well.

Thanks guys-
 
I have a Perc 5i and my HP expander is coming in tomorrow. I already backed up everything on my server...but i don't have the SFF8484 to SFF8087 cables. Good to know Dustin. Thanks for the heads up.
 
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