I reached the limit of my NAS motherboard which is 12 drives, no more PCI lanes I can use to add more drives, unless I remove the cache pool which is a no go.

Now my question is if you add a JBOD and connect it via usb type C can the additional drives be added to the existing array?

Or maybe someone has a better solution to expand storage than what I was able to find online, for reference I am using a mini itx n305 motherboard https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Motherboard-SATA3-0-HDMI2-0-Routing-Firewall/dp/B0CWYTMLBL?th=1

 

Thanks!

USB is not recommended for array or pool devices.

8 hours ago, JorgeB said:

USB is not recommended for array or pool devices.

So there's no other solution unless I upgrade the motherboard in the future?

1 minute ago, cprn said:

So there's no other solution unless I upgrade the motherboard in the future?

You can try USB and some people seem to use it successfully.    However other experience problems and it is difficult to predict which camp any particular user will fall into.

 

If you must use USB then you might be better off running without parity and ensuring that you have a good backup strategy in place to handle any drive failures.

16 hours ago, itimpi said:

You can try USB and some people seem to use it successfully.    However other experience problems and it is difficult to predict which camp any particular user will fall into.

 

If you must use USB then you might be better off running without parity and ensuring that you have a good backup strategy in place to handle any drive failures.

If the drives are connected through USB will I able to add them to the existing array where I already have 12 drives? Basically go from 12 to 20 drives in the same array with 8 hdd connected via usb in a jbod.

 

From what I was able to find online, it seems that you are forced to create a separate pool with the jbod drives, is that true?

16 minutes ago, cprn said:

If the drives are connected through USB will I able to add them to the existing array where I already have 12 drives? Basically go from 12 to 20 drives in the same array with 8 hdd connected via usb in a jbod.

 

From what I was able to find online, it seems that you are forced to create a separate pool with the jbod drives, is that true?

As long as the JBOD exposes each drive individually to Unraid with their unique serial numbers then you can treat them just like any SATA connected drive and use them for any purpose supported by Unraid.
 

As was said earlier the potential issues would be:

• Problems if the drives have a tendency to disconnect and then reconnect as a different device ID (as many USB connected drives often do) as Unraid arrays are not hot-plug aware.
• performance bottlenecks due to putting multiple drives through a single connection to the host.

You would need a lsi HBA with a controller to use outside jbod

then use the fiber link to connect via the scsi interfaces to connect more disk drives.

 

example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/324620033356?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1lRwHEkoQT6WvnN7XhzD9bg84&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=324620033356&targetid=1585159290651&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9021811&poi=&campaignid=20398892845&mkgroupid=154424565809&rlsatarget=pla-1585159290651&abcId=9317279&merchantid=101707307&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-OwBhBnEiwAgwzrUohIdFOJZED4ZTVftyP4dMFmag9o8eu12kapj8K2ZG-NwIccThPMrxoCRKEQAvD_BwE

 

example:

https://www.newegg.com/adaptec-2258600-r-serial-ata-300-serial-attached-scsi/p/N82E16816103215

 

You would need to find one with ports internal to replace and use a pcie device.

usbc thunderbolt done't have the bandwidth for a jbod.

 

While not recommend, yes, you could in theory attach something like a QNAP NAS/disk shelf vai usbc and the unassign disk plugin to unraid.

https://www.serversupply.com/ENCLOSURES/EXTERNAL/8 BAY/QNAP/TL-D800C-US_356235.htm?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-OwBhBnEiwAgwzrUunrAJ6IbmyayXcPAqYSg78DjJ-MbZX50Nqh2rgfCI9h1n0iNNgTAhoCMjoQAvD_BwE

 

^terrible performance and highly not recommend. But possible...

 

Not sure the disk could be seen to be added to the unraid array. But via unassign disk plugin could be used.

Edited April 12, 20242 yr by bmartino1

There is also the iscsi plugin and attach another machine via iscsi plugin -not sure if iscsi is useable in a array. as theses are network attached disks...

2 hours ago, bmartino1 said:

You would need a lsi HBA with a controller to use outside jbod

then use the fiber link to connect via the scsi interfaces to connect more disk drives.

 

example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/324620033356?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1lRwHEkoQT6WvnN7XhzD9bg84&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=324620033356&targetid=1585159290651&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9021811&poi=&campaignid=20398892845&mkgroupid=154424565809&rlsatarget=pla-1585159290651&abcId=9317279&merchantid=101707307&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-OwBhBnEiwAgwzrUohIdFOJZED4ZTVftyP4dMFmag9o8eu12kapj8K2ZG-NwIccThPMrxoCRKEQAvD_BwE

 

example:

https://www.newegg.com/adaptec-2258600-r-serial-ata-300-serial-attached-scsi/p/N82E16816103215

 

You would need to find one with ports internal to replace and use a pcie device.

usbc thunderbolt done't have the bandwidth for a jbod.

 

While not recommend, yes, you could in theory attach something like a QNAP NAS/disk shelf vai usbc and the unassign disk plugin to unraid.

https://www.serversupply.com/ENCLOSURES/EXTERNAL/8 BAY/QNAP/TL-D800C-US_356235.htm?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwt-OwBhBnEiwAgwzrUunrAJ6IbmyayXcPAqYSg78DjJ-MbZX50Nqh2rgfCI9h1n0iNNgTAhoCMjoQAvD_BwE

 

^terrible performance and highly not recommend. But possible...

 

Not sure the disk could be seen to be added to the unraid array. But via unassign disk plugin could be used.

Thanks for your detailed response, I don't have any PCI lanes I can use which is why I was looking at an usb-c connection.