sas or data pcie controller ?

[Nio9345]

So, I want to make a server that has many functions but my main focus is to have it run NAS and caching (windows updates, origin, steam, Linux updates, etc) services. My main rig has a Pentium g4xxx CPU, 16GB RAM, Asus x97-C, 750Watt PSU but I don't know what controller to use for the HDDs.

[Dujith]

Many server boards have alot of SATA connections. But it depends on how many HDD's / Raid if you will need a extra card or not.

You will only want to use SAS in an enterprise environment as it draws more power and costs alot more. 

[Nio9345]

9 minutes ago, Dujith said:

Many server boards have alot of SATA connections. But it depends on how many HDD's / Raid if you will need a extra card or not.

You will only want to use SAS in an enterprise environment as it draws more power and costs alot more. 

My board isn't server grade so it has 4 sata ports available after I use the NVME interface for a SSD. So I wanted to have something future proof and has good software RAID compatibility.

[Dujith]

That would depend on your budget / ability to get good 2nd hand.

There are 2 types of cards, the one you will see most is a HBA card that may or may not support anything above raid 1+0,

since its basically a pass-through that requires your CPU to take the load. 

 

Then you have RAID cards and they support higher RAID, these are in roughly 2 flavors with and without cache/backup and have their own dedicated controller,

These will present themselves as an actual RAID to your system.

 

In my own experience (mostly buidling servers for surveilance systems) i require only a HBA card as the data isnt mission critical and RAID 10 (1+0) is fast and dependable enough.

Now for mission critical data, then yeah get a RAID card with battery backup (and ofc backups).

So it all depends on what u want, expect and how much problem it would be if a drive fails.

[Nio9345]

1 hour ago, Dujith said:

That would depend on your budget / ability to get good 2nd hand.

There are 2 types of cards, the one you will see most is a HBA card that may or may not support anything above raid 1+0,

since its basically a pass-through that requires your CPU to take the load. 

 

Then you have RAID cards and they support higher RAID, these are in roughly 2 flavors with and without cache/backup and have their own dedicated controller,

These will present themselves as an actual RAID to your system.

 

In my own experience (mostly buidling servers for surveilance systems) i require only a HBA card as the data isnt mission critical and RAID 10 (1+0) is fast and dependable enough.

Now for mission critical data, then yeah get a RAID card with battery backup (and ofc backups).

So it all depends on what u want, expect and how much problem it would be if a drive fails.

I found something in the "range" of this card, I don't know of course if this is what you meant by HBA card but since it supports 8 sata drives I can't complain : https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-9267-8i-6Gb-s-PCI-E-2-0-512MB-8Port-RAID0-1-10-SATA-SAS-Controller-Card/122296465684?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

[Dujith]

Thats a RAID card that does 1,0 and 10 accelerated. You will need 2 cables tho that split the sas mini to 4x SATA.

 

[Nio9345]

16 hours ago, Dujith said:

Thats a RAID card that does 1,0 and 10 accelerated. You will need 2 cables tho that split the sas mini to 4x SATA.

 

Hmmm. So it's a no. Well I prefer to have SAS since with 2 sff8087 cables I have 8 drives. I want to have this type of connection for expandibility since I will go with 4TB for each drive, starting with 2 and adding more storage as I go. And since we are on the subject, software RAID like btrfs and zfs file systems can be expanded periodically without hickups or errors, or so I read in many articles, right?

Edited July 11, 2019 by Nio9345
better question

[dalekphalm]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:31 AM, Nio9345 said:

So, I want to make a server that has many functions but my main focus is to have it run NAS and caching (windows updates, origin, steam, Linux updates, etc) services. My main rig has a Pentium g4xxx CPU, 16GB RAM, Asus x97-C, 750Watt PSU but I don't know what controller to use for the HDDs.

So the answer is "it depends".

 

Do you have any idea what NAS OS you want to use? Let's pick and use some examples:

 

1. FreeNAS - FreeNAS uses the ZFS filesystem and to work properly, it needs direct low-level drive access to the HDD's. You can accomplish this via the built-in SATA ports, or by using an HBA (Host Bus Array). HBA's have no RAID functionality, period. An HBA is essentially just extra ports for the Operating System to use (Though to be clear, they're usually SAS ports, but that's not inherently a problem, since SATA drives can work on SAS - though adapter cables may be required).

 

You can also get a RAID Card that has had it's firmware flashed to IT mode (Initator Target mode) - this basically shuts off the internal RAID functions, and turns the RAID Card effectively into an HBA. Some RAID Cards can have their firmware flashed to IT mode at home. Sometimes, it's not easy though.

 

An HBA, a SATA Expansion Card (Like those Syba or StarTech cards), or a RAID Card flashed to IT mode would all work for you. You can also mix and match HDD's on the onboard SATA ports with HDD's on any of these expansion cards too.

 

2. Windows - if you choose Windows Server, you can either use Windows Storage Spaces (in which, all of my advice for FreeNAS applies here too), or you can use a Hardware RAID Card (in IR mode - or "Proper RAID" mode).

 

3. Linux - same advice as FreeNAS, though you can use a Hardware RAID card if you don't want to use Linux's built in MDADM RAID (nor configure ZFS, which is also compatible with Linux).