I’ve currently filled all of the drive bays in my case, so I bought a Supermicro QUANTUM DXi6500 storage array off of eBay.  I’ve having some issues finding something locally (Canada) to connect this to my to my existing server.  I’m using an IBM M1015 flashed in IT Mode, so I was thinking of getting a SAS Expander that has 2 external SFF-8088 connections (to go to the Supermicro server) and a minimum of two internal SFF-8087 to connect my existing drives.  Does something like this exist?

LSI with 8087/8088 connector, shouldn't have 8i8e, but 16i or 16e could be found.

8 hours ago, bisk said:

Does something like this exist?

Never seen one, there's the HP expander with many internal connections but only a single external connection, could be a bottleneck with 12 disks.

 

IMO best option would probably be an LSI HBA with a couple o external ports, like the 9200-8e

Some solution also could consider ( assume SFF8088 at DXi6500 with 12bay and internal 8bay )

 

1) Buy a LSI-9380-8i8e controller and 8644-8088x2 and 8643-SATA x2 ( cost too much )

2) Buy a x8 wide expander with >= 6 ports, Internal / External / HBA each use 2 port, use 8087 to 8088 and route out the cable to DXi6500, that means only DXi6500 end detachable.

3) Option 2 + a 8087-8088 adapter, but I don't recommand due to more connection node means more problem.

 

But you should ensure DXi6500 work first.

Thanks guys.  I’ve confirmed that the DXi6500 is working; a friend of mine lent me an HP RAID card, but it doesn’t do JBOD and will only present the disks to UNRAID if an Array is created on it. 

 

I was going through my spare parts drawer and it looks like I’ve got another IBM M1015 card.  I’ve flashed it to IT Mode and plugged it into my server and it’s working. Oddly enough, the second PCI Express x16 slot on my motherboard (Asus P8H77-V LE) only operates at x4 and the IBM card is an x8 card.  So I guess I can go with option 2 or 3 above without the expansion card. Do you think I’ll have any issues running the IBM card in a x4 slot?  Maybe I’ll move the internal drives to that since there’s only 8 and put the DXi6500 on the IBM card that’s in the full x16 slot. 

 

Now I need to find some reasonably priced 8088 to 8087 cables of a decent length and quality.

Edited September 9, 20187 yr by bisk

No problem if run in PCIe x4 width. One drawback was those PCIe x4 route thr mainboard chipset, unlike flagship mainboard could provide x8+x8 from CPU direct connection. Performance may affect.

Edited September 9, 20187 yr by Benson