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sas expander vs m1015s

L

lboregard

n00b
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
12
hello all, i currently have a das built from an m1015 and a chenbro sas expander for 24 disks

the m1015 is passed through to an esxi vm.

id like to move the server out of the vm and go native.

i wonder if i can use the sas expander directly from the os, or do i still need the hba

im thinking that driving the sas expander directly would yield more bandwidth.

dont know if it's possible.

i'd appreciate any advice.
 
thanks for the replies!
what i meant with driving direct is having an os driver that would "see" the expander and the 24 disks directly, without the need for the m1015.
but . as per the previous reply, im guessing i still need the hba.
i currently connect the 1015 to the expander via a sff8087-sff8088 cable
i could keep doing that but it limits bandwidth when all drives are accessed (running parity on unraid). that's one of the reasons im looking at going native.
so im thinking maybe get a couple more m1015 and dump the chenbro or looking for other ways to maximize bandwidth.
 
The only connection from your system to the expander is the HBA. If you look closely to the PCI/PCIe connector on the expander you will see that it does not even have contacts.
You could however dual-link the expander using two cables.
 
I was wondering what was going on until I read omniscence reply. An expander is like a multiplier of ports, you give it one or two and get more ports. If you give it nothing it doesn't work.

You can get a card which does both HBA/RAID card and expander, usually for a lot of money.

Are you sure you're limited by the expander, what numbers are you seeing ?
 
lboregard said:
i could keep doing that but it limits bandwidth when all drives are accessed (running parity on unraid). that's one of the reasons im looking at going native.
so im thinking maybe get a couple more m1015 and dump the chenbro or looking for other ways to maximize bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Are you REALLY limited by 1200MB/s? Which the 4 lanes from 1015 to expander provide?

Have you read this

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Improving_unRAID_Performance#Parity_Check_Speed

Not that I know anything about unraid.... But I feel you might be barking up the wrong tree here.

.
 
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