RS2BL080 raid external enclosure

[idata]

I Have a RS2BL080 raid controller in my tower case. Current have 5 hard drives attached in raid 5. Just added a sixth. Crammed it into my old floppy drive bay. Out of space. Is there any way to utilize this controller with an external sata enclosure? Some kind of adapter, extension? Can be jury rigged as long as it works.

THanks.

JR

[SBlitz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Here is your adapter:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/raid/raid-accessories.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/raid/raid-accessories.html

Order code - AXXRCVT8788

Enjoy,

Saar

[idata]

WOw. That's stellar. Is it possible to hook this up, move the drives to an external enclosure, and still maintain my raid? Also any drive enclosures that would be recommended and compatible with this assuming the type of enclosure would cause me to maintain or lose my current raid 5 config when moving the drives externally?

Also what determines if you use the straight thru cable vs the octopus connector which each of the 4 ports per channel?

thanks.

JR

[SBlitz]

Hi,

Yes, hook the drives to external JBOD and RAID will rescan and maintain config.

Nice (rack mount) JBOD from Intel:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/xr/en/server-systems/storage-system-jbod.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/xr/en/server-systems/storage-system-jbod.html

Cable is SFF8087 to SFF8087 - from your card to the AXXRCVT8788 adapter.

Reg,

Saar

[idata]

Would those enclosures work for me? They boast having only two 8088 connectors on the back. I thought each of my 8087 ports could manage 4 drives. Assumed for every four drives there would have to be a 8088 port on the back. They show 2 ports with the 3.5" 12 bay unit.

THanks.

JR

[idata]

John,

The AXXRCVT8788 will convert the RS2BL080 SFF-8087 internal connectors to SFF-8088 external connectors. You'll need SFF-8087 cables to go from the controller to the converter and SFF-8088 cables from the converter to the JBOD.

You can use one (4 ports) or two (8 ports) cables to connect between the controller and JBOD. The JBODs have an expander to enable 4 or 8 ports to control 12 or 24 disk drives.

See the http://www.intelraid.com/download.php?id=328 Intel® RAID Converter Board RCVT8788 Product Guide for details.

Regards,

John

[SBlitz]

Hi,

These JBODs have expanders inside (SAS switches) which converts "wide port" (2x4lane miniSAS) to 12 drives total.

And you better connect 2 xminiSAS cables to the JBOD (for faster performance).

[idata]

THanks for the replies and links. Intel documentation including the link is sporadic at best. Not a lot of good detail on what the adapter does and what it supports. Like can I attach to 100 external hard drives and the controller can manage it? Or is 12 the limit? Not jonzing on anyone here. All been very helpful. Just thought intel should provide more details on the product and how it all works. Guess for this kind of equipment they don't think it's necessary.

Thanks

[idata]

John,

Are you asking specific questions about the RS2BL080 RAID controller now? Originally you asked if there any way to utilize this controller with an external SATA enclosure. I think that question was answered by Saar Blitz. I offered additional details that seemed to cover some additional points of interest.

You can manage any disk attached to the RS2BL080 through RAID Web Console 2 application that can be downloaded from the RS2BL080 site.

The RS2BL080 will not support 100 attached disks. The LSISAS2108 Controller used by the RS2BL080 will support up to 32 physical devices and 64 logical devices via expanders.

You can find a lot of information on the RS2BL080 and how to use it in the http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/rs2bl080/sb/CS-030637.htm RS2BL080 Hardware User's Guide and http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-022358.htm RAID Software User's Guide.

Regards,

John

[idata]

Thanks for all the help. Think I have it almost figured it. With the Intel Storage System JBOD2000 couple items.

it was mentioned to use both ports for improved performance with this case to my controller. Reading the spec sheet says to use both for redundancy. That sounds like failover rather than performance based no?

Second on this case, does its expander capability have an x8 wide porting feature or will I be limited to around 2GB/Second? Possibly tied to the first question.

Thanks.

JR

[SBlitz]

Hi,

Dual controller model is for redundancy. Two ports in Single Controller are for one wide port = higher performance.

Yes , it has x8 wide port = x8 of 6Gb SAS - around 4.5GB/Sec.

[idata]

THank you folks. Does anyone know if the JBOD2312S2SP drive cage comes with the 12 drive sleds or do you have to buy them separately to install the drives?

thanks.

JR

[SBlitz]

Intel (and other barebone manufacturers) always ship sleds/trays. And screws as well :-)

Thanks,

Saar

[idata]

THanks Saar. One last item and I think I'm good. Looks like in the manual there are two LEDs per drive. Is this the case or is that just part of the visual design. Only LEDs the manual talks about is on the small panel. They just reference "these are the hard drives". One thing I hate on my internal case is when a drive fails it can sometimes be hard tip be sure you are yanking out the right drive as you can'sense the flash led function on the controller to see which drive is what.

THanks.

JR

[SBlitz]

The faulty HD led should work with your RS2BL080 as the JBOD and the controller both support SES protocol.

Thanks,

Saar

[idata]

bonjour

je suis un peut perdu,car je ne sais pas ou poster afin de faire un nouveau post ,pour des problèmes de sata

sur carte mère

merci d'avance

[idata]

Good news. Have the 8087 to 8088 adapter in my system. Raid card wired up to it. Have the drives and all hooked up. Everything works. Performance seems about the same. Not sure if one cable would work any different. Didn't try. Two issues kind if.

1. The 8088 cable slides into the adapter in my computer fine. On the back of the enclosure it's like an act of something to get it pushed all the way on. I think because the little piece Thant hangs down on the middle of the connectors on the backplane of the raid enclosure is more centered and the slot on the cable is off to one side. Goes in eventually but lots of pressure. Thoughts?
2. Figured it would be but this sucker is loud don't mind in my server room at work but this is at home. Any thoughts how to quiet it down? Not sure how much the fans help since you have the hard drives that connect into a circuit boards "wall" in the case and then the fans are behind that circuit board wall.

THanks for your thoughts and help.

[SBlitz]

Hi,

# 1 we must see but as long as it works, I'm okay with this.

# 2 Looks at http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/jbod2000/sb/jbodhwg_v10.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/jbod2000/sb/jbodhwg_v10.pdf

Look at page 12.

Furtheremore, try to update latest firmware from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=3702&DwnldID=22615&lang=eng&iid=dc_rss https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=3702&DwnldID=22615&lang=eng&iid=dc_rss

Afterall, it's a rackmounted system to be used in computer room cabinet.

[idata]

THanks for the reply. I'll see if I can get any pics of the issue with the Cable if it helps. Is there directional cables that are setup different on each end?

nice didn't know there was firmware updates for these units. I do not see my raid controller in the list of supported cards but perhaps this expected since my card is technically for internal devices. Also most looks from the read me that somehow thru the card and the OS I'm supposed to be able to manage the thermal settings. Not sure how.

THanks.

JR

[idata]

Here is a picture of the cables I received. also noticed I can monitor the external enclosure thru the raid web console 2 software. See the fans are on a setting of 1 which I would guess is the minimum. Don't think I can manage it there though.

Thanks

[SBlitz]

Hi,

In page 26 of http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/jbod2000/sb/jbodhwg_v10.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/jbod2000/sb/jbodhwg_v10.pdf you can see three fans. There is one which is critical (in front your your expander and you probably have one only) and two ones which are far less critical if your room temperature is around ~25-30 degrees Celsius. It's a not Intel supported advice of course, but it can/might prevent some noise (to take these two out).

Now, the system is smart and maybe speed up the single fan left, but again, it's try. You cannot control the logic here, it's firmware based (this is why I suggested upgrade it)