Storage upgrade options

Just FYI, Adaptec storage manager is even worse. Also java based, slow, clunky, etc. However both LSI and Adaptec offer a CLI if you prefer to do things that way. I much prefer the web-accessible management of Highpoint or Areca though.

I also had the unexpected sense problems, particularly w/ Seagate drives, and while the card worked with my Chenbro SAS expander, the fact that online array roaming was not supported was a dealbreaker for me, since I use an external JBOD which I turn on and off as necessary to do offline backup. I've since switched to a Highpoint 4320.

Just a guess, if LSI is anything like Adaptec, support is just going to tell you to stop being cheap and buy enterprise drives.
 
I'm doing something similar, but slightly less ambitious:
~18x 1.5TB drives (Seagate 7200.11 x 10 WD Green x 8 - 1 WD green that died 36 hr in that I'm RMA'ing)
4x 2TB Hitachi Deskstars (will be adding 3 more of another manufacturer for Raid 6+ hotspare)
2x 7200.11 1TB Raid 1 for OS
5+ 500GB WD RE2's (just to use for VM's and what have you)

Right now I'm burning-in (or killing off if you will) the WD Green's, the new Asus P6T7 supercomputer mobo and such by playing with Win Server 2k8 R2 and WHS in Hyper-V. All of the drives above work, for whatever reason, with my Adaptec 31605's so I'm standardizing off those controllers versus the 5xx5 series cards that I have. I actually bought that motherboard because the 31605's are so cheap (not speed daemons though) and have a decent number of ports. If they had a 32005 that would be great so I could have 2x 8x 1.5TB raid 6 arrays + 2 global hotspares. But alas, can do 9x 1.5TB and 7x 2TB to keep ~8TB/ array for 4x MBR disks which WHS likes.

ASM is slow and Java based, but it works.

Just some thoughts.
 
pjkenned said:
Right now I'm burning-in (or killing off if you will) the WD Green's, the new Asus P6T7 supercomputer mobo and such by playing with Win Server 2k8 R2 and WHS in Hyper-V.
Click to expand...

Win2008 R2 + Hyper-V is awesome. I kick myself for not upgrading my WK8 servers to WK8 R2 sooner. I mean not all that much has changed, but just enough to be noticeable, kind of like going Vista -> Win7. I run VMware ESX farms at work and while it's great, there's still some stuff I actually like better about Hyper-V. You're in good hands.

More and more people that don't trust WHS due to various issues (corruption bug with large files in certain situations, lack of parity ability) are running it in Hyper-V just for some of the benefits like dummy-proof backup of client PC's on the network, and then entrusting their data to hardware based raid on W2K8 server. With a Technet subscription, W2K8 it can be had inexpensively.
 
I'm a proud Technet Plus subscriber :)

The deal breaker for ESXi and me has been the lack of Realtek Ethernet support and my current distain for Supermicro motherboard (which have "real"/Intel GigE) because I can't use my UIO raid card in any board I want, after flipping it to the PCIe x8 (it is electrically compatible PCIe x8). My bad for buying it, but to have that unnecessarily sunk cost is not great. I understand this is irrational.

My current WHS has 16 hard drives and has always used hardware raid, being sure to turn off duplication (except for a few folders I want duplicated on different volumes). WHS duplication costs too much once you get a decent number of drives in the mix.

I would actually just use WHS if it was based on a 64 bit OS, but faced with the need to go beyond the current 16 drive setup, a leftover i7 920 & 12GB of ram, and a few raid controllers, it seemed stupid to have a 32-bit OS on the box, and then have other Core 2 Duo boxes set up to run other things. The i7 920 isn't a screamer since I won't overclock it in the server box, but it is way too much CPU for WHS.
 
I have a feeling the SAS expander is to blame at this point. I've eliminated the RAID cards, so it is either that or the drives. I can't imagine over half of the drives being faulty though, so I'm going to try my other expander.
 
These are the Chenbros right?
I wonder if that HP expander would be a better option?
 
Yeah, both are Chenbros. I don't have one of the HP ones on hand and I don't want to buy one unless I have to. You have one I can borrow?
 
Not yet.

I am trying to decide if I should get an HP or a Chenbro.
I know some people gripe about the HP using PCIe power, but its gonna take up a mobo slot for me either way.

Ill bite on a HP if I can get a good deal on ebay.
 
So I'm at the point where I think I'm just going to sell the 20 WD drives I have and return the LSI card. I think I see 20 Hitachi drives on the horizon attached to my 1680ix-24 (directly attached). Maybe someone else has an HP SAS expander I can borrow to test in the meantime?
 
I wish I could. Really. I mean, I only have nine hp expanders right now, all updated to the latest firmware. And with the economy and haiti and everything else goin, well things are a bit of a bear right now. just a bear.

How dare you.
 
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You know you want to. I even have a FedEx account so you wouldn't have to worry about shipping. :D I blame my Chenbro SAS expanders and I want to see if I'll have similar results with a different chip (since the HP ones use something different).
 
trust me you'll have different results. The clouds will part, the birds will sing. It will be like putting on mom's high heels for the first time. You remember. Oops did I say too much?

Pretty much If the hp doesn't work nothing will. SAS2 raid card, meet SAS2 expander. Oh hai. Lets get to f*cking bizness shall we? Kk.

Hell even old problem drives like the CC1H Seagate 1.5Tb's that were notorious for not working in raid arrays now suddenly work fine. PFM. If anything is gettin sold ita that 1680ix-24 since the onboard expander blows herds. And you know what I'm talkin about. HERDS.
 
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Only problem is that I have to return the LSI card before I could test the HP SAS expander (unless I use overnight shipping). :(
 
Of course overnight. Lets put some of these fedex clowns to work drivin a few planes around.
 
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