Question on SAS backplanes (IE Norco)

[crankbearing]

 

What is the configuration path with SAS if you have 6 sata ports on board and you want to use a 5 sas or the like backplane such as norco. fwd or rev cables only come as 1 in/out to 4 in/out. Seems to me you would be better to go with with the 4020 and use that actually 20 sata ports on the backplane of that case, yes you increase the risk of cable (connection) issues but you would not loose any sata ports on the board.

 

maybe I am wrong in my thinking but can someone clarify.

 

thanks,

 

Dave

[prostuff1]

 

What is the configuration path with SAS if you have 6 sata ports on board and you want to use a 5 sas or the like backplane such as norco. fwd or rev cables only come as 1 in/out to 4 in/out. Seems to me you would be better to go with with the 4020 and use that actually 20 sata ports on the backplane of that case, yes you increase the risk of cable (connection) issues but you would not loose any sata ports on the board.

 

maybe I am wrong in my thinking but can someone clarify.

 

thanks,

 

Dave

the SASLP card can support 8 drives.  buy 2 cable to hook up to the 5-in-3 cages.

 

I have a 4220 and run a cable from 2 motherboard SATA ports and 2 ports on a SIL3132 card.

[Johnm]

The SAS standard is 4 Channels per port. That is 4 drives per SAS cable (we will ignore some of the high performance SAS backplanes that use 2 ports or 8 drive connections for 4 drives).

 

I do not know of 5 port SAS backplane that uses SAS connectors of the top of my head.

 

There are some 6 Port backplanes that use 2 SAS ports and essentially "throw away" 2 Drive connections.  Those are usually found in pre-built rackmount servers. I know Intel has some of those.

 

The best suggestion for a situation where you are using a norco 4220/4224:

Use only 4 of the motherboard ports or to toss a 2 port Sata card in the unit to give you 8 Sata ports.

You would then use reverse breakout cable(s) as needed.

 

In my builds; (both Norco 4224's)

  For the first build, I used the 6 motherboard ports and 2 sas reverse breakout cables.

The leaves 2 loose cables in the server that I could then connect to an inexpensive monoprice PCI 1x 2 port sata card should I need the 23rd and 24th port. I then used 2 SAS HBA's for the other 16 ports via SAS. (22 drive build for now)

 

  For the second build, I used a single Reverse breakout cable going to 4 of the motherboard ports. I then mounted 2 SATA III SSD's internally using my 2 SATA III motherboard ports.  I then used a combo of SAS and SAS expantions cards to make a 26(+) Drive build.

[now i actually have 1 SATA backplane and 5 SAS backplanes in my 4224 on accident].