Hey there,

 

I just acquired an old Dell 1U server with no SATA on-board.

 

A buddy has the same dell server but hes running Windows Server on it.  He expanded the storage space by adding the following:

 

Addonics ADS3GX4R5-E PCI-X SATAI / SATA II Controller Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816318004

Rosewill RSV-S4-X 4 Bay SATA to eSATA (Port Multiplier) JBOD / RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5 Enclosure http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132029

 

It works great, but it looks like the configuration for the SATA card is a windows GUI. 

 

Has anyone had any experience with SATA add-on cards and Port Multiplier Enclosures with unRaid?

 

Thanks,

Munky

Yes, some of the other Hero members and some moderators have used port multipliers. I think BubbaQ / WeeboTech have posted their experience in other threads.

I've tested a Sil3132-based controller card connected to an external multi-bay enclosure and port multiplication seemed to work fine.  In my case, the drives in the external enclosure were mounted with SNAP instead of as part of my unRAID array, but I don't see why that wouldn't work as well.

The SiL3124 is supported so that card should work. I would use it with a external box holding a SiL port multiplier, which the Rosewill does.

 

I would believe the interface you are seeing on your friends computer could be to setup the RAID or something like that. In the unRAID case, you just put the setup into JBOD mode and go. Likely, you can hit a key combo on initial boot and get into the controller card setup.

 

Peter

Wouldn't the transfer speed be slow since all the drives will be going though a single PCIe lane? Especially when you do parity check or writes

 

I am using that same Rosewill enclosure and Sil3132 card.  Works fine in unRaid.  Can't speak to the speeds yet, I'm going to start transferring data over next weekend.  PreClear was fine, and the array gets setup and initialized properly, so I know unRaid is good.

I have a similar enclosure to that Rosewill one, and a Sil3132 card. I have four 500GB drives in that enclosure, as a part of my array. It's fine, but there's a bit of a speed hit when doing parity checks (it's about 50MB/sec on those drives, rather than 70+ for the other drives). Beyond that, my only real complaint is that the enclosure itself doesn't have great cooling for four drives. It has a single 80MM fan, which means those drives are constantly 5-10°C warmer than my other drives.