I'm looking for a way to add storage externally to my current unRAID setup. My case is pretty full and I think I've maxed out my SATA capacity, which includes 8 drives running off the two SAS ports on a Dell Perc H310 HBA. I'm thinking that my best bet is to attach a DIY JBOD enclosure. One significant constraint is that my motherboard, a Supermicro X10SDV-TLN4F, has only one PCI-E slot, currently used by the HBA.

 

However, the motherboard does have an M.2 socket if that offers other avenues. From the manual: "The X10SDV series deploy an M key only dedicated for SSD devices with the ultimate performance capability in a PCI Express 3.0 X4 interface for native PCIe SSD support. The X10SDV M.2 is mux with the I-SATA0 port for legacy SATA SSD devices."

 

I'm not in the USA, so some pre-built or pre-owned solutions are terribly expensive once shipping is added.

 

I found this thread very useful:

 

Also, this website https://techtellectual.com/sas-expander-vs-hba/  had some very helpful articles.

 

After reading around a bit, my plan is to connect the server to the JBOD case via external SAS ports on both. Plan A was to replace the current HBA with one that has both internal and external ports, but such HBAs seem to be very expensive. So Plan B was to add a SAS expander to the server. But this means I have to use one of the two HBA ports to connect to the SAS expander, so either I get an HBA card with more ports or I get a SAS expander with at least two internal ports and one external port. One internal port would be for connecting to the HBA card, and one effectively to replace the "lost" HBA port. The external port would be used to connect to the JBOD case. I'm assuming that the SAS expander card can be powered via Molex or at worst some sort of PCI-E riser.

 

For the JBOD enclosure, my plan is to use an old case + old motherboard (with CPU) + maybe new PSU. Then I add a SAS expander with an external port for connecting to the server's SAS expander external port, and enough internal ports for the hard drives in the JBOD enclosure.

 

How does this sound? 

If you have a 3D printer - this is what I'm finishing up.

(1) 3d print your own NAS with 24 hard drives - YouTube

Here is a video from the Art of Server - a well regarded seller on Ebay for correctly flashed controller cards - where he talks about a JBOD SAS expander setup.

Edited March 19, 20233 yr by whipdancer

That's a great-looking enclosure, but I'd have to get someone to print it commercially for me, and I can't see myself needing an additional 24 drives. (Famous last words, I know.)

 

I can live with my recycled old PC case - it's more the HBA/SAS cards and connections that I'm worried about.

 

I'm looking at some possible cards: how much practical difference does PCIe 2.0 vs PCIe 3.0 make, or 6Gbps vs 3Gbps, assuming I will use only SATA hard drives, no SSDs?

See below for some real world numbers: