[geeks] Netra T1 Disk Limits?

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2008/07/14 Mon PM 12:10:32 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Netra T1 Disk Limits?

>On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 10:35:48AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
>> I'd like (and may make) a 1U SATA JBOD, all I would need would be a 1U
>> chassis with (as a start) 4x hot-swap trays[0], and simply run the
>> SATA cables to a port multiplier[1] and drop an add-in SATA controller
>> to an older machine. Storage wouldn't be bootable, but it should be
>> *fairly* affordable. All the external SATA boxes I can find are
>> "towers" or 4U "monsters"[2] - I'd rather have a 1U rackmount
>> solution... 
>
>I want a 1U SATA JBOD with a bit of a variation.  I want the 4x drives
>to go to a 4x infiniband port on the back.  The 4x infiniband port
>carrying 4x sata/sas shows up on a fair number of reasonably affordable
>used cards and will give better bandwidth, while actually simplifying
>your design.

Like this:

http://www.scsi4me.com/norco-ds-1240-12-bay-hot-swappable-rackmount-infiniband-multilane-3-5-sata-hard-drive-storage-array.html?osCsid=ef8ffd7f7b4f957f6d7e0f47468f641c

A 12 port SATA JBOD that is 'fed" by three Infinband connections on the back?

$50-60/drive bay doesn't seem *that* expensive...

$350 for a 4 bay version from Sans Digital:

http://www.scsi4me.com/sans-digital-elitestor-es104t-4-bay-1u-rackmount-esata-to-sata-storage-system.html

>> Another idea would be to retro-fit a SATA backplane into a SCSI-based
>> system, a simple drop-in SATA backplane wouldn't be that hard, just a
>> mash-up of the existing SCA SCSI backplane with the SCA SCSI
>> connectors scrubbed off, and the SATA connections simply run off to a
>> standard SATA connector... 
>
>That should be a fairly simple project for some small systems.  For
>larger boxes (like the 711), the size of the PCB would make it rather
>expensive.

I would prefer to see this as a vendor upgrade option, wherein SUN would take their original tooling for the SCSI backplane, and simply replace SCA SCSI connectors with SATA data & power connectors, simply running them to conventional SATA ports to be fed to third-party RAID cards...

>The only issue I see is that you will probably spend at least $100 per 3
>board run, and if you are a noob at doing this sort of thing (like I
>would be), fear of the cost of getting it wrong on the first try is a
>bit off putting. 

I have neother the inclination or ability to pull this off - I think I'd be better served by redirecting my efforts towards justifying an add-on SATA JBOD chassis ($350 pre-built, and a little less by piecing one together with a low-cost chassis, PS, and eSATA ports *or* a SATA port multiplier)...

Lionel