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Using SATA Drives w/ SAS Expanders

M

MySongRanHills

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
237
I'm in the process of making a ZFS all-in-one setup using sata drives with this expander:

http://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/BPN-SAS2-846EL1_SAS_Expander_Backplane

And while talking to some people in FreeNAS' IRC people were discussing problems w/ using sata drives with SAS expanders. Something to the effect that if a sata drive hangs then others using the same lane can hang as well?

So has any one encountered this and if so what is the worst case scenario?
 
First off, don't think I've used that exact BP!

As I understand it:
All SAS BP's are universal and can support either SAS or SATA drives.
However SATA BP's are NOT universal and can only support SATA drives
This is due to the physical data interface connection of SAS

FWIW we use SAS BP's on all of our servers and the vast majority of them use SATA drives. We don't have any oddball issues like you're describing. Am pretty sure SuperMicro servers use LSI BP's and we certainly don't have issues with SATA drives in them.

Last thing: are these people talking about intermixing SAS and SATA drives? If so I believe that practice is generally frowned upon.
 
It's not the backplane that can cause issues, it's the expander.

And you're correct, OP, there have been widespread reports of issues when people use SATA drives on SAS expanders. I'm fairly sure you can find lots of info on it in the SAS expander owners thread in this subforum.
 
spazoid said:
It's not the backplane that can cause issues, it's the expander.

And you're correct, OP, there have been widespread reports of issues when people use SATA drives on SAS expanders. I'm fairly sure you can find lots of info on it in the SAS expander owners thread in this subforum.
Click to expand...

Umm I must be more noob then I thought , where is this sub forum?
 
I have had 0 issues with my Intel 24 port expander and 4TB WD Red drives.

I know a guy with a 24 bay Supermicro case with that exact expander/backplane you linked and he uses it with 24 4TB WD Reds and has no issues.
 
SirMaster said:
I have had 0 issues with my Intel 24 port expander and 4TB WD Red drives.

I know a guy with a 24 bay Supermicro case with that exact expander/backplane you linked and he uses it with 24 4TB WD Reds and has no issues.
Click to expand...

That's nice to know and helps to confirm some other stuff I've seen.

drescherjm said:
You are in it now..
Click to expand...

lol @ me , thought he was trying to say that there was a SAS expander sub forum.
 
I have multiple systems with that SAS expander/backplane and no issues with SATA drives.
 
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