Cheap JBOD External Storage

Currently using 3.5TB of expensive SAN space for backup. SAN was nearing capacity and current HP G4 DL380 only supported LFF SCSI disk.

To add more drives to an aging server was imposible, so the only alternative is either get a external disk enclosure on the cheap.

Parts List

The HP G4 DL380 only supported PCIX, and two slots are already used for HBA fibre cards.

So the only card that fits that is the : HP Smart Array P600 controller

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarrayp600/index.html

$150 AUD inc delivery ( new never used )

Infiniband SFF-8470 to Mini SAS 4x SFF-8088 1m Cable

$25 AUD

OWC Mercury Rack Pro 0GB 1U Quad Interface 4 BayPerformance RAID Kit

$369 +$120 delivery

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRP1UMSAS/

4 x CONSTELLATION ES 2TB, 7200RPM, SAS, 3.5", 64MB

$1385

Results : Just over $2000 for 8TB  raw storage. The SAN Space is approximately over $1000 a TB.

Results : Backup Speed using Disk to Tape, Back up server and Tape unit MSL2024 is fibre attached to the same fabric.



 

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Cons : External JBOD has only one power supply, Power supply is not autodetecting voltage - you have to manually set it to either 110V or 220V. Only has one power supply. I have opened the unit up - soldering qaulity is not that clean.

Otherwise pretty happy with the results - currently been running about 1 month so far.

P600 controller only supports 3GB and not 6GB due to limitations of old server.