Parts used in this Build

• Netapp DS4243 Shelf (no controller)
• QUAD SAS Card: PM8003 
•  SAS Cable QSFP to QSFP
  
  If you have a different SAS card, I'm sure it will still work. This is the card that I was able to source.
  
  
  
  
  
   
• There's no Power button on these shelves, they just turn on when you give them power. from my testing, you only need 1 power Supply to be on and all 24 drives will still work. the other power supplies are only to be used for redundancy (ideally from different power sources) and is over kill in a home lab. 
• EDIT: I was getting "random" drives disconnecting form my array, to re-add the drives, you had to rebuild the array which took a long time and put my data at risk. In the logs it was found that my drives would go missing each time my UPS did a self check. the fix was to use 2 power supplies, I put them on their own UPS.

 

 

Here are some power stats for fun:

Empty Shelf with all 4 Power Supplies ON. (207 Watts)

 

• The Full Shelf, with 24 Disks on takes:
• 305 Watts with 1 PowerSupply on.
• 323 Watts with 2.
• 348 Watts with 3, an
• 378 Watts with all 4.
  
  
  STEP 1) Install your SAS card in your unraid server. leave the server off for now.
  
  STEP 2) - With the Netapp turned OFF; Physically plug the SAS Cable in the port with the "Square icon" on the top controller & the other end of the cable to your SAS Card in your unraid server.
  - Turn on a Power Supply.
  - Give it a good minute to fully initialize.
  

 

STEP 3) Power on your Unraid Server & login to its interface.
 - If you're lucky. you're Done. The drives are already showing up in the MAIN menu, and you can start assigning your Disks.

if you don't see your Drives... Keep reading.
 

 

STEP 4)  Go to TOOLS > System devices.

- Do you see your disks? (yes = good) (No? Go to Step 5)
- Your Disks don't have a "Size"? (Let's fix this)

 

STEP 5) Sanity Check - Check the Logs

- Go to: TOOLS > SYSTEM LOGS

- CTRL-F (find), search for "Netapp"
- Finding "Netapp" confirms that your card is working. (Great!)
- Some Netapp drives are formatted with 520b sectors instead of the needed 512b. we need to reformat them for Unraid to see them properly.

 

 

STEP 6)
 

- Click the Terminal icon

- Run this command to download the formatting utility: 

wget http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackware/slackware64-14.1/slackware64/l/sg3_utils-1.36-x86_64-1.txz

- Run this after the download to install sg3_utils

upgradepkg --install-new sg3_utils-1.36-x86_64-1.txz

- Use this command to show SAS HDD's

sg_scan -i

this command to format. PLEASE READ /dev/XXX should be the HDD in the NetApp that needs to be formatted. (AKA double check before you format the wrong drive) 

sg_format --format --size=512 -v /dev/XXX

 

From my testing, I was able to open 24 terminal windows and format all 24 drives at the same time. This might have slowed things down a bit.. not sure.. but I just went to bed.


STEP 7) 

The following morning, I woke up, went to MAIN, but still didn't see my disks  

I REBOOTED the System.... and the 24 Disks appeared.  

Checked the Logs... no more errors... and I confirmed it was formatted in 512 sectors now. yes!

 

 

Edited March 5, 20215 yr by DannyG
Corrected information about power supplies.

Upgrade 450GB disk to ?

I got all this stuff for free.

I'm a little sad I can't have more then 1 array.
if I had multiple arrays, I could have all these 15K RPM disk in one for a nice fast pool for the VMs.

and the slower 7200 RPM drives for longer term storage.
I also see I'm limited to only 30 Drives.. which makes this 24 Bay Drive an over kill since I already have 10 Drives (+ 1 NVMe) in my main server.

I just bought this card to work with my DS4246 I bought however Unraid will not detect the card. Is there something I need to do? I followed these steps but did not seem to help make it visible in system devices....

"

Netapp DS2246 / DS4243 / DS4246 QSFP SFF-8436 Linux Server PCIe Quad PT SAS Card

Includes:

30 Day Warranty - All Equipment Is Tested, Clean, and Working!

Netapp QSFP SFF-8436 Linux Server PCIe Quad Port QSFP SAS Card

For use when attaching Netapp DS2246, DS4243, DS4246 Arrays to a Server as a JBOD

Will work in Dell, HP, Supermicro Etc servers, full length bracket

Will only work with Linux Operating Systems"

I am trying to get mine to work. I have a ds4246 and a Netapp SFF-8436 Linux Server PCIe Quad PT SAS Card. I can not get it to work. I can see it as a PMC card in equipment but it never shows NETAPP in the System Log, I can see that it shows the 4 different BUS ports on the card but doesnt show as Netapp and will not read the drives.. can anyone help?

 

Does SAS port LNK LED illuminates green ?  ( I haven't NetApp )

 

no nothing lit up

Out of curiosity, do you know what the largest dive that SAS card and drive shelf will support? I have a few of each (haven't used yet) and am wondering if it is worth it. I ask as I have several EMC DAE drive shelves currently in use and it appears spotty on support for drives 8TB and larger - some 8TB work, others aren't recognized.

 

 

Edited April 7, 20206 yr by mfwade

I bought the shelf for 8 - 10tb drives, others I have spoken to said it will work for atleast 8tb that is why I bought it so I will update when i get it working with the hardware I am using and what works

not trying to snipe this thread... but perhaps applicable... I have filled up my 8 bay system... while my sas controller can handle 16 drives... I will be needing something larger soon...

 

do you guys have some suggestions as to server case or HHD enclosure that makes sense? 

 

I can go in any direction... be it a different computer case or a server chassis.

 

Thanks

45 minutes ago, mathomas3 said:

not trying to snipe this thread... but perhaps applicable... I have filled up my 8 bay system... while my sas controller can handle 16 drives... I will be needing something larger soon...

 

do you guys have some suggestions as to server case or HHD enclosure that makes sense? 

 

I can go in any direction... be it a different computer case or a server chassis.

 

Thanks

Define 7 XL is one of good solution, it support 16 3.5” disk, of course, you need buy extra disk tray.

On 4/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, Benson said:

Define 7 XL is one of good solution, it support 16 3.5” disk, of course, you need buy extra disk tray.

ended up getting one. just need to find the disk tray.

 

Plug and Play here

 

-Unraid 6.8.3

-Dell R710 II  w/Dell H200 in IT Mode

-LSI 9200-8e in IT Mode

-NetApp DS4246 24-Bay IOM6

 

On 4/18/2020 at 12:18 AM, Tolete said:

Plug and Play here

 

-Unraid 6.8.3

-Dell R710 II  w/Dell H200 in IT Mode

-LSI 9200-8e in IT Mode

-NetApp DS4246 24-Bay IOM6

 

wich cable you use ?

On 5/5/2020 at 10:30 AM, stefan marton said:

wich cable you use ?

QSFP(SFF-8436) to MiniSAS(SFF-8088) DDR Cable

https://www.amazon.com/SFF-8436-MiniSAS-SFF-8088-Cable-2-Meter/dp/B07Y4ZKQJB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1UNRJFYPKWWC5&dchild=1&keywords=qsfp%2Bsff-8436%2Bmini%2Bsas%2Bsff-8088&qid=1589076335&sprefix=mini%2Bqsf%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-3&th=1

On 5/10/2020 at 4:06 AM, Tolete said:

QSFP(SFF-8436) to MiniSAS(SFF-8088) DDR Cable

https://www.amazon.com/SFF-8436-MiniSAS-SFF-8088-Cable-2-Meter/dp/B07Y4ZKQJB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1UNRJFYPKWWC5&dchild=1&keywords=qsfp%2Bsff-8436%2Bmini%2Bsas%2Bsff-8088&qid=1589076335&sprefix=mini%2Bqsf%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-3&th=1

great price in italy is 85 euros

On 3/6/2020 at 10:11 AM, DannyG said:

- Do you see your disks? (yes = good) (No? Go to Step 5)
- Your Disks don't have a "Size"? (Let's fix this)

 

 

What's the solution for the drives being recognized but showing no storage space? Assuming the sector size is correct on the missing drives.

On 4/7/2020 at 1:35 AM, mfwade said:

Out of curiosity, do you know what the largest dive that SAS card and drive shelf will support? I have a few of each (haven't used yet) and am wondering if it is worth it. I ask as I have several EMC DAE drive shelves currently in use and it appears spotty on support for drives 8TB and larger - some 8TB work, others aren't recognized.

 

 

 

I have several 8Tb drives (mixture Seagate and WD) as well as a WD 14TB parity all working fine, well they were until I wrote that.

Thanks for letting me know. Right now I am good however, in the near future when I add more 14 TB drives I now know the shelf will work.

 

-MW

Amazing write up! Thank you for your efforts, it was a huge help. I just setup my DS4246 and everything appears to be working. I just have a few questions.

 

- Should I plug the power cord in for all PSUs, or just one?

- Should I use interposer on my SATA drives?
I don't like that drive temps and SMART data is not available while using interposer.

 

- I read dual-link is possible by connecting to both ports on a single IOM, however, the performance gains are minimal, if any.

 

- Are there any configuration settings that can be tweaked in the the disk shelf? Fan speed/curve is my main concern.

I just received my DS4243 last week, the QSF+ to SFF-8088 are so expensive (at least in frace) that it was much more cheaper to replace the controller with a DELL 0952913-07 (which is 6gbps by the way), so I'm landing with a DS4246 .... and can use standard SFF)8088 cables.

 

My question is more about the redondancy. does it make sense to use 2 controllers ? If I connect both controllers to the HBA card, do I increase the speed and use 2 channels ?  or is it only for redundancy ?

 

Even for redundancy, I do not understand how the switch to the second one is made. If I connect only the bottom one, the disks do not appear.

 

Do we know what the correct/safe power up/down sequence is?

 

-From the write-up looks like power on the disk shelf first (give it a minute or 2). Then power on server/host?

 

Power down?

1. Power down server/host

2.Power switch on disk shelf

 

correct me if im wrong?

On 3/29/2020 at 10:33 PM, tmoran000 said:

I just bought this card to work with my DS4246 I bought however Unraid will not detect the card. Is there something I need to do? I followed these steps but did not seem to help make it visible in system devices....

Did you get anywhere with this?

 

I got a PM8003 as well and it is just not being detected on Unraid on a HP DL380 G8.

 

It has worked with a Netapp X2065A-R6 card - but the PCIe is full-length so does not really fit in my case

 

 

Edited December 9, 20205 yr by estrim
spelling

On 12/9/2020 at 8:27 AM, estrim said:

Did you get anywhere with this?

 

I got a PM8003 as well and it is just not being detected on Unraid on a HP DL380 G8.

 

It has worked with a Netapp X2065A-R6 card - but the PCIe is full-length so does not really fit in my case

 

 

i returned it and got a different one and it worked perfect. was immediately identified

I purchased a DS4243, card and cable. However, before actually installing everything Id like to get some understanding onpossible power outages.

 

My Unraid box is running on a small UPS. Big enought to host the server, but too small for an additional DS.

When there's a power outage, the UPS will send the server over USB a signal to initiate shutdown.

 

How/what should I do for the DS? Should I buy a 2nd UPS for the DS? And how do I make sure it only initiates shutdown AFTER the server has been shut down succesfully?

Or, is it OK if it just looses power without a shutdown after the server itself was shutdown correctly? (and therefore all id need is a bigger one, for which it is ok if it's jsut a dumb one, which outlasts the server's UPS)

 

Please let me know your best practises :).

Perfectly fine to buy something, but Id like to know what then