sata pci adapter controller card

[sprtfan]

I have a server with 6 sata ports. I use stablebit drivepool and 5 of the hard drives are in the pool. The other is my boot drive. I wanted to change the boot drive to an ssd drive but also wanted to keep the 6 hard drive outside of the pool for some additional temporary storage. Basically nothing important would go on it.
I wanted to get a cheap sata controller card to add another sata port to put the 6 hard drive on and then put the new sata boot drive on the port on the motherboard. Would any cheap controller card work well for this or would I be better off just getting rid of the 6 hard drive and using some of my pooled storage instead? I could put the money I'd use to buy the cheap controller card towards a bigger storage drive for the pool. Thanks

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I have a server with 6 sata ports. I use stablebit drivepool and 5 of the hard drives are in the pool. The other is my boot drive. I wanted to change the boot drive to an ssd drive but also wanted to keep the 6 hard drive outside of the pool for some additional temporary storage. Basically nothing important would go on it.
I wanted to get a cheap sata controller card to add another sata port to put the 6 hard drive on and then put the new sata boot drive on the port on the motherboard. Would any cheap controller card work well for this or would I be better off just getting rid of the 6 hard drive and using some of my pooled storage instead? I could put the money I'd use to buy the cheap controller card towards a bigger storage drive for the pool. Thanks

Depends on how "cheap" you want to make it. Since you're talking about a "server" system, I'll share my good experience with a particular ~$60 controller model -- the StarTech PEXSAT34RH:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...58365&cm_re=PEXSAT34RH-_-15-158-365-_-Product

These things will configure even without proprietary controller drivers with the Native AHCI-mode Windows driver. There is a driver you can install, and they will configure to AHCI-mode with the StarTech driver. They are also configurable through the card's BIOS setting screen for RAID0, RAID1, and RAID10. Topping all that off, they provide port-multiplier capability so you can attach seven HDDs to the 4-port controller with a port multiplier, sometimes found in DIY NAS boxes.

I've got two of these in my 2008 R2 (WHS2011) system; I'm using a third one to build and test a replacement for that system. The new box has enough PCI-e bandwidth available to add two more cards harvested from the old server.

You could take a look at customer reviews for the StarTech. People seem pleased with them. Otherwise, there's a whole s***pile of alternative SATA cards you can find at Egg or various virtual places.

 

[XavierMace]

I'd just get a surplus LSI card, run it in IT mode with a pair of breakout cables. That will give you support for 8 drives off the single card rather than trying to remember what drive is plugged into where.

 

[sprtfan]

Its a "server" but it only has backed up movies, recorded TV shows, and pictures that I also have backed up in other locations. Nothing that couldn't be replaced or has a critical need for accessibility. I think it probably makes more since to just upgrade some of the hard drives to get more storage instead of trying to force another drive to fit. Thanks

 

[Shellls]

I'm in the same boat as OP. I have a x58 motherboard and want sata 6gbs. Does anyone have any recommendations for a fairly cheap lsi card?

 

[master_shake_]

this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PERC-H...558303?hash=item58ddfe631f:g:9dcAAOSwnNBXbVPJ

8 ports 6gbps

 

[Shellls]

Will that operate in ahci and raid mode or just raid? I would rather not have to do a clean install of my os.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Will that operate in ahci and raid mode or just raid? I would rather not have to do a clean install of my os.

That's the question. I might have bought a used IBM or LSI controller instead of the Marvell-Startechs, but that feature was touted in the reviews I'd found. Might have been possible that one of the used or surplus items would've filled that bill, but I wouldn't know.

 

[Shellls]

Trim won't be supported in raid mode right?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Trim won't be supported in raid mode right?

I would do a little web-info research about that. At first, RAID didn't support TRIM. Eventually, I believe, it does now.

I've had my share of RAID arrays. None of them ever failed. But if a disk goes south, you have to identify and pull the bad drive, then add a new one and rebuild the array if it's RAID5.

"So," you would say, "You have to do that if a pooled drive goes bad." But I like a pooled-drive strategy because I can read any single disk in the pool just by plugging it in. For Redundancy, the pooling allows for duplication (or triplication etc.) at the folder and file level. Thus, you don't need 2x HDDs for RAID1 just to store the data that would fit on a single. For sure, it eliminates a temptation to get a hardware controller costing more than a couple Franklins.



As for speed, well -- I've got some moves I can make, and I've got a strategy. I don't need my server to be as blazing fast as a gaming workstation. But pooling may enhance speed as much as RAID1 without wasting drive capacity. At least, that would be the case for duplicated folders and files.

 

[XavierMace]

Flash the PERC to IT mode. http://www.vladan.fr/flash-dell-perc-h310-with-it-firmware/

"So," you would say, "You have to do that if a pooled drive goes bad." But I like a pooled-drive strategy because I can read any single disk in the pool just by plugging it in. For Redundancy, the pooling allows for duplication (or triplication etc.) at the folder and file level. Thus, you don't need 2x HDDs for RAID1 just to store the data that would fit on a single. For sure, it eliminates a temptation to get a hardware controller costing more than a couple Franklins.

Ok, I'll bite. Personally I don't see a benefit to being able to pull the drive and read the data, but I'll give you that one.

Regarding redundancy... That's not really redundancy in your example as you're storing your "live" data and your "backup" on the same drive. I hate that they even call it that. Ask any IT professional on the planet. Making "backups" of your data and storing it on the same drives you just "backed up" is not a backup. Plus it's not like you need software to do that. You've been able to copy files at the file/folder level since OS's were invented.

Yes, I've used StableBit. I don't think it's a BAD product. But all it's doing is basically making NTFS junctions and copying files for you. $35 isn't a bad price for that, I guess. But if you're concerned about the data, you really shouldn't run it without Stable Bit scanner. So now you're looking at $60.

You can use Storage Spaces for free on Win 8 and later. There's a variety of free OS's out there using ZFS and I'd far rather have ZFS snapshots than simply extra copies of certain files. Neither of those require RAID controllers of any sort and performance wise, I'd put a half decent ZFS build against StableBit any day of the week.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Flash the PERC to IT mode. http://www.vladan.fr/flash-dell-perc-h310-with-it-firmware/



Ok, I'll bite. Personally I don't see a benefit to being able to pull the drive and read the data, but I'll give you that one.

Regarding redundancy... That's not really redundancy in your example as you're storing your "live" data and your "backup" on the same drive. I hate that they even call it that. Ask any IT professional on the planet. Making "backups" of your data and storing it on the same drives you just "backed up" is not a backup. Plus it's not like you need software to do that. You've been able to copy files at the file/folder level since OS's were invented.

Yes, I've used StableBit. I don't think it's a BAD product. But all it's doing is basically making NTFS junctions and copying files for you. $35 isn't a bad price for that, I guess. But if you're concerned about the data, you really shouldn't run it without Stable Bit scanner. So now you're looking at $60.

You can use Storage Spaces for free on Win 8 and later. There's a variety of free OS's out there using ZFS and I'd far rather have ZFS snapshots than simply extra copies of certain files. Neither of those require RAID controllers of any sort and performance wise, I'd put a half decent ZFS build against StableBit any day of the week.

I'll look into it, but to my own experience and what I'd heard from some of our colleagues, StableBit is great.

And, to be sure, I run it with StableBit Scanner.

But who said that I don't supplement StableBit's "redundant" duplication with backups? I back up my server to a hot-swap bay and single drive.

How is a mirrored RAID1 any different, except for the fact that the duplication or redundancy is at the file and folder level, and not one whole drive as essentially a full clone of the other?