How add 16th (Array) and 17th drive (Cache) to MD-1500/LL

[hawihoney]

Good morning,

 

I own a MD-1500/LL (http://lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=45) with an unused eSATA port at the back. Now with release 4.3 just around the corner I would like to add two drives to this port. One drive should expand the array to its maximum of 15 drives (w/o parity) and the second drive should be reserved for the upcoming cache feature.

 

Will it work in theory and what hardware should I buy?

 

Many thanks in advance.

Harald

 

[WeeboTech]

> Will it work in theory and what hardware should I buy?

 

You can certainly add 1 hard drive in an eSata enclosure to expand the array.

From what I can tell the eSata port is a JMB363 and you can add more hard drives with port multiplcation and the  latest unRAID.

You can add up to 5 more hard drives in a single enclosure with port multiplication.

 

I tested the AMSDS-3RPRO which handles two drives on an ABIT AB9 PRO which also has the JMB363 chip.

It worked for me.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1750.0

When adding two drives as a JBOD, they will spin down when unused.

When using them in any way other then JBOD, they do not spin down.

 

Keep in mind, you can add up to 5 drives if you do not need raid0, raid1, spanning or anything like that.

 

I guess it's time for Tom to bump up the capability of unRAID to 20 drives!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hawihoney]

Hi,

 

thanks for your answer.

 

The MD-1500/LL is a LimeTech collection. I think it's time for LimeTech to suggest an external two drive enclosure (one Array/one Cache) that works with their hardware. A tested solution for all customers that bought their machines would help a lot. If they offer that in the shop I would buy one.

 

Harald