Non-RAID SATA PCIe card suggestions?

[BaDaBooM]

I'm setting up a storage server that can support up to 14 drives. I have been looking for a SATA PCIe card but surprisingly (to me at least) I haven't been able to find much. I don't need RAID because I will be using software RAID. However I have limited PCIe slots so I would like to fit as many ports on a card as possible without compromising performance (for the money). The more channels the better since I want lots of ports.

I was thinking I could either find 2-3 4 port cards or 1-2 5+ port cards (as I can use some ports on the motherboard). However I can only seem to find 2 port cards that do not have RAID. I suppose I could go with a RAID card and just not use the RAID piece but I was hoping to get them much cheaper if they did not support RAID since it's not needed.

Additionally I need it to be ultra stable/reliable and have varied driver support. I haven't decided whether to go linux or open solaris but it will likely be one of those. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[alaricljs]

Supermicro's AOC-SAT2-MV8 is a 8port card that might fit your needs. Around $110 and then some added cost for the appropriate cables. Slightly more at ~$125 for the LSI chipset AOC-USAS-L8I, and it's some goofy SuperMicro version of PCI-E, but it will fit in the slot. You might need to fab a bracket if you can't find one.

 

[Mark R]

I was thinking I could either find 2-3 4 port cards or 1-2 5+ port cards (as I can use some ports on the motherboard). However I can only seem to find 2 port cards that do not have RAID. I suppose I could go with a RAID card and just not use the RAID piece but I was hoping to get them much cheaper if they did not support RAID since it's not needed.

Additionally I need it to be ultra stable/reliable and have varied driver support. I haven't decided whether to go linux or open solaris but it will likely be one of those. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I'd go for a SAS card designed for server use. SAS cards are compatible with SATA drives, so work fine. If you go for one without heavy-duty RAID or battery-backed cache - they can be pretty affordable.

Additionally, you get support for all major operating systems (including linux, BSD). I don't know about opensolaris - but as solaris tends to be heavy duty, you can often find drivers for most server grade equipment.

If you go for a big-name card (e.g. adaptec, LSI) then you can be pretty sure of support even in obscure OSs like opensolaris (e.g. this 16x 6Gbps SAS/SATA card is supported on pretty much anything you care to name).

If you don't want a full 16 ports, then you can for something a bit smaller:
e.g. this one. But this is a more obscure brand, using a less well supported controller - so no solaris support for this one.

Don't forget with most of these SAS cards, you'll need a breakout cable because they use quad-channel sockets on the cards.

 

[pjkenned]

OP: With software RAID, you do not want an additional RAID layer acting as an intermediary which can cause the OS and the physical disk to be out of sync.

What you want is either an Areca card and configure disks as pass-through disks OR get a LSI 1068E or LSI SAS2008 based card and flash them to IT mode. Links to how-to's:
LSI 1068E flash to IT mode guide
LSI SAS2008 flash to IT mode guide

Adaptec cards do not present pass-through disks the same way. Using pass-through, the RAID controller acts as a simple SATA controller and will not write RAID data to the drives. For example, I took a few drives from an Areca 1680LP that were configured as pass-through disks and connected them to a LSI 1068E in IT mode and the drives worked without issue with no more setup required.

One other option we are investigating is the IBM ServeRAID M1015's ability to pass through disks both in its native state for software RAID.

If you look at LSI cards and find an inexpensive non-LSI version feel free to add to the LSI OEM equivalency mapping if it isn't already there.

Hope that helps.

 

[iluvdeal]

Just curious, if you do go with a RAID card, why would you not want to use the RAID on it? Software RAID's benefit is it's cheap, if you paid for a hardware RAID card, what's the purpose of staying with software RAID?

 

[alaricljs]

Benefits of software RAID over hardware:

You are not tied to a specific vendor or model of RAID card, anything that talks to your drives will do.

Mix and match HBAs and span your RAID sets over multiple controllers.

In a properly built target mode (some RAID cards don't have this) you get full SMART diagnostics support so that you can use your OS's standard support to monitor drive health instead of proprietary tools that may or may not work in your OS even when the card does.

Support for "special" RAID or RAID-like stuff: ZFS, BTRFS, probably other fun stuff I know nothing about. There's really no point in doing ZFS on top of hardware RAID.


I'm sure there's more that I can't think of after a long day.

 

[BaDaBooM]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I've been researching these and it looks like the Supermicro might be the least expensive option. I was looking at the AOC-USAS2-L8E since it would give 6 Gb/s (~$150). It does have the LSISAS 2008 SAS controller and from what I read it looks like open solaris does support this. If anyone knows of a more cost effective rebrand of the LSIs (that can do 6 Gb/s) then please let me know. Otherwise I think I have a winner. Thanks again!

 

[alaricljs]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I've been researching these and it looks like the Supermicro might be the least expensive option. I was looking at the AOC-USAS2-L8E since it would give 6 Gb/s (~$150). It does have the LSISAS 2008 SAS controller and from what I read it looks like open solaris does support this. If anyone knows of a more cost effective rebrand of the LSIs (that can do 6 Gb/s) then please let me know. Otherwise I think I have a winner. Thanks again!

So I have to ask... If you're doing this as storage then you're obviously not using SSDs. What then is the point of 6Gbps? By your description I expect that you're not using port expanders either, especially since they cost more than another card and you should have the slots available.

 

[BaDaBooM]

So I have to ask... If you're doing this as storage then you're obviously not using SSDs. What then is the point of 6Gbps? By your description I expect that you're not using port expanders either, especially since they cost more than another card and you should have the slots available.

With ZFS you can use caching drives... I was planning on using SSD for those.

 

[dac7nco]

That Supermicro card actually does come with both a low-profile and standard case bracket.
It's not a RAID controller at all - I love it.

Daimon

 

[alaricljs]

That Supermicro card actually does come with both a low-profile and standard case bracket.
It's not a RAID controller at all - I love it.

Daimon

Which one? The AOC-USAS2-L8E is UIO which is PCIe with the board offset reversed.

 

[dac7nco]

Aoc-saslp-mv8 - I wouldn't post a damned proprietary card; it's why I hate ASUS "workstation" boards with their MIO and PIKE bullshit.

 

[pjkenned]

Just curious, if you do go with a RAID card, why would you not want to use the RAID on it? Software RAID's benefit is it's cheap, if you paid for a hardware RAID card, what's the purpose of staying with software RAID?

Low end RAID cards only do RAID 0, 1, and sometimes 10. Sometimes you want RAID 6/ RAID-Z2 for example. You also want a SAS/ SATA HBA anyway, and the LSI 1068E/ SAS2008 are examples of chips which are great HBA chips and also low end RAID cards. They also support things like SAS expanders so you could, for example, buy a $150 RAID 0, 1, 10 card, flash it to IT mode, add a SAS expander and have 30+ drives of connectivity for <$500 running RAID 6. A 24+ RAID-6 card is going to cost well upwards of twice that.