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LSI SAS2 Expanders?

E

EGOvoruhk

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
178
Does anyone know any expanders using LSI's SAS2 chipset?

As of now, I've only found two:
Intel RES2SV240
Astek A33606-PCI


I like the Intel, only problem is that it only has 6 ports, so I'd only be able to use 5 out, and 1 in. The Astek is, well, costs way too much
 
Search here for my 'ZFS Monster' project.

I'm using Supermicro's SC847 JBOD chassis (45 drives) and includes the LSI SAS2 expanders (2 of them...one for front drives, one for the rear drives).

Be forewarned though...I've been harrassing LSI and SMC for about 2 months to get an answer as to why I'm not able to realize 6Gbps throughput on my chassis uplinks...I just got feedback from SMC...LSI is now admitting that their expander chipset is not yet supporting multiplexing (a feature that is listed in some of their product literature). Without multiplexing support and when deploying chassis with cheap 3Gbps (SATA) drives, you expander uplinks WILL negotiate a 6Gbps link speed, however, you will only realize 3Gbps of throughput....Ever other frame is filled with zeros (e.g. filler frames)...so technically you are sending 6Gbps of data, but only half of it is your data. lol...ridiculous.

As it stands now, to get any real benefit from SAS2 you'll have to use SAS2 drives...which will costs about 3x as much. I'm not sure that LSI and SMC understand how strategically important multiplexing is so who knows if/when it will be enabled on this chipset.
 
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