Okay so I am out of room as far as space in the case and sata slots. Is there any ideas on how to add more HDs without building another full NAS?

 

Yes I know I can get bigger drives but I want to use the spair drives I have already.

Well ...

 

(1)  you're using an ITX board with a single expansion slot (a superb board by the way);

 

(2)  you've already got a controller in the expansion slot;

 

(3)  you're already using all of your SATA ports;

 

and

 

(4)  you say you have no more room in the case for additional drives (but I have a question about that).

 

So ... a few thoughts ...

 

(a)  There appears to be plenty of room between the drive cages and the rear of the case to add at least one more drive cage (possibly 2) that would hold 3-4 drives each.

 

(b)  You could add more SATA ports by either removing your current 8-port card and replacing it with a 16 (or even 24) port card;  or you could add a port multiplier (assuming your current card is port multiplier compliant).    The port multiplier would slow things down a bit for parity checks/rebuilds ... but would eliminate the need to buy an expensive 16/24 port card.

 

©  You could add a small drive-only case next to your current chassis and run SATA cables to it (you'd still need to add additional SATA cables).

 

... or of course you could just buy a bunch of 8TB drives 

 

Have a look at what Daniel did with his Fractal case ... he hung one cage and added another at the bottom => adding an additional 8 drives.    I think this would work fine in your case.

 

Note the bottom picture in the post I linked to here:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=37567.msg458891#msg458891

Recommend a SAS expander instead of port multiplier, both the HP 6G SAS expander and the Intel RES2SV240 will work with the M1015.

 

EDIT: just remembered that the HP would need a free x4 slot for power, or some other adaptation, the Intel can use a molex connector.

Good idea Johnnie.  I wasn't aware there was one that doesn't require a PCIe slot, but the Intel does indeed work without one:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117207

 

.... the picture doesn't make it clear, but the description clearly does:  "...  In addition, the card design allows for mounting on chassis walls or ducting. Power can be obtained either from a PCIe slot or a power cable."

 

That little card combined with the additional cages like Daniel used will provide space/connections for 8 more drives 

Is there anyway that can use the USB2.0 or 3.0?

Is there anyway that can use the USB2.0 or 3.0?

 

No.  There's been some discussion r.e. adding support for USB v3 drives in the array, but as far as I know that's not been done.    And even if  you could, you wouldn't want to use USB v2 drives, as this would dramatically slow down the array.

 

Well then v3. I got about 3 of them laying around. But it still doesn't help much on the issue of currently. I looked at that Intel card but the issue is my current IBM card only has 2 SAS connections. So while I will gain 8 drives is it worth the extra $250 for the card?

V6.2-beta supports usb disks in the array.

Also if you use a single link with the intel expander you can add 16 disks.

V6.2-beta supports usb disks in the array.

 

Nice to know ... I knew it had been discussed, but don't have 6.2 installed on anything yet [building a new desktop system next month which will let me use my old desktop as a beefier test box that I can install 6.2 on].

 

... was just thinking about the USB support.    Does it require the interface be USB v3, or will it also allow v2 connections?  [Can't imagine why you'd want to use one, but just curious]

 

... was just thinking about the USB support.    Does it require the interface be USB v3, or will it also allow v2 connections?  [Can't imagine why you'd want to use one, but just curious]

 

USB 2.0 also works, but I agree, would never use it for array or cache devices.