External SAS Array to take 8+ disks and connect via Adaptec Mini SAS based RAID card - Advice Needed
Hi guys. My question is pretty simple - I'm hard pushed to find a sensibly priced solution that meets are needs below. Here's what I'm trying to do.
We are buying an Adaptec RAID 5085 adaptec card. This will support up to 8 x SAS / SATA drives via 2 x external mini SAS connections (SFF-8088). We want to buy a rack mountable unit, that will allow us to put at least 8 of our own SAS drives in, accessible from the front (hot swapable) and have the necessary ports on the back to connect 2 x Mini SAS cables back to the Adaptec card.
Seems a pretty resonable request, but I haven't been able to find anything that quite fits the bill for us. Most things out there seem to already have drives, have some RAID system built in, etc. We just essential want a unit that powers the drives, provides connectity to the RAID card, and makes them hot swapable from the front. Can anyone advise on a piece of technology that fits this description, and is available in the UK?
Many thanks,
Bluemercury
We are buying an Adaptec RAID 5085 adaptec card. This will support up to 8 x SAS / SATA drives via 2 x external mini SAS connections (SFF-8088). We want to buy a rack mountable unit, that will allow us to put at least 8 of our own SAS drives in, accessible from the front (hot swapable) and have the necessary ports on the back to connect 2 x Mini SAS cables back to the Adaptec card.
Seems a pretty resonable request, but I haven't been able to find anything that quite fits the bill for us. Most things out there seem to already have drives, have some RAID system built in, etc. We just essential want a unit that powers the drives, provides connectity to the RAID card, and makes them hot swapable from the front. Can anyone advise on a piece of technology that fits this description, and is available in the UK?
Many thanks,
Bluemercury
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Looks like I anawered my own question on the cable - the good people your mentioned also have SFF-8088 to SFF-8470 conversion cables on their site here: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/
Will post again once we've worked out what we're doing....
Many thanks :D
Will post again once we've worked out what we're doing....
Many thanks :D
You're not going to be able to put SAS disks in if it says it is for SATA, you need a SAS/SATA enclosure for that. (they have them on the site Gary linked to as well)
ASKER
Andyalder - thanks for your comment. I'm fully aware of this though - I know SAS drives won't run with SATA interfaces, although I am aware that SAS interfaces are backwards compatible with SATA drives.
The models I'm looking at are all SAS based - I immediately discounted the SATA only based devices when I first saw the site.
Thanks for your input.
Bluemercury
The models I'm looking at are all SAS based - I immediately discounted the SATA only based devices when I first saw the site.
Thanks for your input.
Bluemercury
ASKER
Many thanks for your input, garycase. I order off that site, and the units have turned up today. I've yet to look at them, but have every confidence they are the exact product we needed. Thanks so much for yoru help! :D
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Many thanks for your post. These options look serious posibilities - thank you. They are within our price range - the sort of options I saw before were about £1500 ($3000 USD) just for an 8 disk unit, so these look a lot more viable.
The only thing I would say is that the rack mountable ones seem to use the SFF-8470 connection - so I'm going to look to see if there is some kind of a converter back to SFF-8088 (correct me if I'm wrong - is this possible, or is the interface technology fundermentally different on the two connector types?) or indeed we'll consider different RAID cards. I think adaptec may make a different card or two with the SFF-8470 connection type.
In the interim, if you do know anyone in the UK that might stock these, that would be perfect.
Thanks so much for your help.
Best wishes,
Bluemercury