Combine 2 physical servers

[lux]

Hello,

 

Is it possible to have 2 separate 1u servers, and have unraid treat it as one massive storage pool?

 

The challenge that I have is that I can’t find any short depth 2U 8 bay servers in the UK.

 

So I’m thinking it would be easier to have 2 sets of 1U servers, and combine them.

 

Ive spent the last few hours researching, but it seems that it’s only possible to create multiple arrays in a single chassis. 

 

Thank you,

Lux

 

 

[Jaster]

How is unraid involved into this? What you are looking for some kind of bare metal issue. The "raw" draft would be having the controller and some disks in one bay. A bunch of disks in the other bay and connect those via some cables to another (or the same) controller inside the first bay.

[Sprint]

I actually started playing with Unraid on an old QNAP box, only a 4 bay thing, but i have an 8 Bay disk shelf (also QNAP) that connected over USB3 🤮(planning to take it to the tip as very little use to me), however, unraid saw and mounted the drives as if they were attached locally. But a disk shelf would be the way to go.    

[trurl]

5 hours ago, Sprint said:

connected over USB3

USB connections are not recommended for array or pool disks.

[AndrewT]

Yes you can combine 2 physical servers with storage disks in each. You need SAS cables (not USB3) for faster data speeds.

 

This is the approach I took to combine two 4U servers. Only 1 has a traditional mobo, CPU, RAM, etc but both have independent power supplies for the disks connected in each:

https://www.servethehome.com/sas-expanders-build-jbod-das-enclosure-save-iteration-2/