any suggestions for 48TB+ server

nitrobass24 said:
Areca>Adaptec

Get an Areca 1680LP
Click to expand...

But be careful with Areca if you are using Supermicro SAS Expander backplanes. There have been some reports of erratic behavior. If you got the Supermicro -A chassis with multi-lane connectors but no expander, you could use an Areca 1680X with two HP SAS Expander cards (you'd need to get one of Supermicro's L-shaped motherboards and a riser card to fit those into an SC847A-R1400UB)

Or you could choose a controller from the Supermicro SAS Expander compatibility list if you do want to use the Supermicro EL1 or EL2 backplane:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/files/storage/SAS-1-CompList.pdf
 
john4200 said:
But be careful with Areca if you are using Supermicro SAS Expander backplanes. There have been some reports of erratic behavior. If you got the Supermicro -A chassis with multi-lane connectors but no expander, you could use an Areca 1680X with two HP SAS Expander cards (you'd need to get one of Supermicro's L-shaped motherboards and a riser card to fit those into an SC847A-R1400UB)

Or you could choose a controller from the Supermicro SAS Expander compatibility list if you do want to use the Supermicro EL1 or EL2 backplane:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/files/storage/SAS-1-CompList.pdf
Click to expand...

Thank you for reply!

Based on ARC-1680X, as i understand, you are talking about configuration where another chassis is connected externally to an existing system, since i don't see any internal connectors on this card.
But if i build brand new system with all the parts inside then, i think, i should use the ARC-1680ix-8 plus the HP SAS expanders in a chassis with no backplane expanders. Is that correct?
 
rOOmUSh said:
Based on ARC-1680X, as i understand, you are talking about configuration where another chassis is connected externally to an existing system, since i don't see any internal connectors on this card.
But if i build brand new system with all the parts inside then, i think, i should use the ARC-1680ix-8 plus the HP SAS expanders in a chassis with no backplane expanders. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

The HP SAS Expanders have an external (8088) port. So for the possibility of future expansion, I suggested the Areca 1680X controller, which can also be used with just one chassis. For your first unit, you would just connect the two ports on the 1680X to a port on each HP SAS expander (or possibly, you could daisy-chain the SAS expanders together so that you only had to connect the controller to one, but I have yet to see a successful or unsuccessful report of daisy-chaining the HP SAS expanders).

Now, suppose you got another chasis with a SAS expander. If you wanted to connect it to your first chassis, you could easily do so utilizing the SFF-8088 ports on the 1680X and the SAS expander(s), assuming the HP SAS Expanders can be successfully daisy-chained.

That said, if I were putting together such a system for commercial use, I think I would prefer to stick to officially supported equipment. So something like an LSI/3ware 9690SA controller (on Supermicro's expander compatibility list), in an SC847E1-R1400LPB, with a Supermicro motherboard. That way if things do not work, you should be able to get assistance from Supermicro and LSI. I would also check with them first on whatever HDDs I planned to use, if they were not on the compatibility list.
 
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Chassis finally shipped last Thursday. The freight shipment is due tomorrow. We'll see if it arrives. Will certainly report and SAS expander issues, and of course, pictures.
 
Update, still building, will post when done.

Case did NOT include a SFF8087 to connect the 4U backplane to the 2U backplane. Luckily I had one on hand. Also, was missing the air shroud, so hopefully SM will send that soon through the RMA process.

Have the RAID card connected to J0 on the 4U backplane and J1 to J0 on the 2U backplane. Don't seem to be any issues so far. I can see all the drives and read the enclosure temperatures. No random drops yet.
 
^^^
supermicro 36 and 45 drives cases offer chance to get 120+ drives from a single system and thats just by using one extreamly cheap sas controller
so in long run having blackblaze thing is just madness and extremly long hours in maintenance
 
drozenski said:
http://www.backblaze.com/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage.html

64TB for 7,867
Click to expand...

Old news, and that backblaze server is deficient. Port multipliers, peashooter sata cards, poor power design, drives with no retention mechanism that will vibrate and resonate right into an early death -- the whole thing is just a mess, not to mention its moot since Supermicro already has a more intelligent case in 4U form factor with slots for as many drives, redundant PSU's, fan shroud for proper hurricane cooling of CPU and memory, built-in SAS expander chip on the backplanes, etc.
 
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Few photos here: http://imgur.com/a/A0L26/thorium

Up to 2 x 5x2TB RAID6 arrays +2 hotspares and 4 drives checking for bad blocks. Will grow as we grow probably. Speed from one array to the other is dismal. Individual array speeds are excellent, especially under lots of load. Temperatures are good. It's loud.
 
Not sure if this is related to the expander, but I have been getting some time outs (only on spares right now.. but still not good). Is there something that I can do to make sure that this doesn't result in a drive being kicked from the array and rebuilding unnecessarily?

2010-04-03 19:10:38 Enc#3 008 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:10:25 Enc#3 007 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:10:12 Enc#3 005 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:09:59 Enc#3 004 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:09:46 Enc#3 002 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:09:33 Enc#3 001 Time Out Error
2010-04-03 19:09:19 Enc#2 016 Time Out Error
 
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