[OmniOS-discuss] Configuration sanity checking

[Peter Tribble]

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 4:22 PM, Eric Sproul <eric.sproul at circonus.com>
wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:16 AM, Chris Siebenmann <cks at cs.toronto.edu>
> wrote:
> >  It may be possible to do this, especially if this is a SuperMicro
> > case. SuperMicro (and probably other people) generally offers several
> > backplane options. One of them passes each disk through the backplane as
> > a separate connection, although connections will usually be aggregated
> > together in IPASS/SFF 8087 connectors (which bundle 4 SAS ports into one
> > cable and connector).
>
> Hah, I was just typing up a similar reply, so I'll just add that if
> your Supermicro chassis model has "E1" or "E2" in it, that means an
> expander backplane, which you should avoid using with SATA devices.
> You can double-check the specific backplane that comes with your
> desired chassis by reviewing the Parts List at the bottom of the page,
> then googling the backplane part number to find Supermicro's manual
> for it.
>

Thanks. Having the part number decoder ring is very useful.

It's slightly worrying that I need to go to a mailing list to get part
numbers
to quote at suppliers who still try and tell me that I'm talking nonsense
and that expanders work just fine thankyou. :-(


> For instance,
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/2U/216/SC216BAC-R920LP.cfm
> is a non-expander chassis, and has BPN-SAS3-216A for which I found the
> manual at https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-216A.pdf
> and confirmed that it has 6x IPASS connectors.
>
> Chris is right that you'll need enough HBA ports to accommodate all
> the drive bays you want to connect-- there is no "oversubscription" as
> there is in a SAS expander setup.
>

Well yes, I get that bit.

It's a shame there aren't 12-port HBAs to give a symmetric mirrored config.
(Yes, there's a 16-port HBA, but it's too big to fit in the chassis.)

-- 
-Peter Tribble
http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
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