Backblaze Server Retrofit Project

[SNDS]

Hey folks, 

 

I'm wondering if a) I can get a measured opinion about this and b) if I can get help finding solutions to my project(s). Note: I am an enterprise and NAS solution newb and that's putting it mildly. I am learning via firehose here, I know. But this is my project for this year and hope to learn a lot as I go along.

 

First, some context:

I found a Backblaze server on Craigslist for $200. It has all the hardware minus drives (boot drive not included either). I know this thing is designed almost exclusively for serving up storage. However, I noticed that there is space for eATX mainboards and there are additional spaces for other expansion cards assuming I were to replace components. This made me think, "Hey, it shouldn't be all THAT difficult to swap out parts and do something bigger/better, right?" Well as evidenced by me writing all of this, it is clearly not that simple.

Below are the specs that I can dig up as the seller couldn't find his data sheet so forgive me if there are any gaps. I can probably boot it up at some point and get you more specifics, for instance I don't know the CPU or RAM speeds, but I am waiting on a VGA-Displayport cable so I can boot it up.

 

Specifications:

Supermicro X9SCM-F https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C202_C204/X9SCM-F.cfm

Intel i3 CPU

RAM 8GB

3x Rosewill (I think) SATA Boards - PI49230-2X2B - Similar to this, same chips on board same number of SATA ports: https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rc-230-sata-iii/p/N82E16816132046

9x CFI Group CFI-BXX52PM - 5 Port Multiplier Backplane with 2x Molex and 5x SATA Data+Power ports

230w Emacs PSL-6850P PSU with a custom male 20-pin and 24-pin power output for powering the backplanes

6x 140mm fans

 

The Projects

This is the part I am unsure about. I have a lot of ideas in need of a lot of solutions so I'll take them in order of priority:

1. Backplane retrofit
   • I've been reading about why 45drives moved away from backplanes to direct wired and it makes me want to replace the backplanes in case of failure. See: https://45drives.blogspot.com/2015/03/our-biggest-design-decision-direct.html
   • I need recommendations on how to replace these backplanes, if possible. I know that Linus and co. did it for their Storinator and discussed retrofitting it to remove their backplanes I just don't know what parts they used or how they went about it as they don't list parts or process the in the video description, and really, why would they? If Anthony is on these forums, would you chime in?
2. SATA->SAS conversion
   • Not sure what card I need as it would need to be able to support port multiplication at the backplane end assuming that #1 cannot be done easily.
3. Plex Server
   • Using UNRaid with docker containers for Plex:
     • I want to be able to handle at least 4-6 4k transcodes depending on a given destination device, Byte my Bits on Youtube shows that a Ryzen CPU and a Quadro p2000 could do this handily, however...
     • ...in my scenario, if I wanted to do this I would need:
       • a 16x PCI-e slot (current MB only has 8x slots)
       • a new PSU (current PSU has custom pinned connectors, see spec list)
         • This one is a doozy as I do not have any clue how to power 45 drives with a single PSU without having custom cables made based on the original. Any recommendations for supplying 45 drives power either via direct connection or via the existing backplanes which need 2 molex connectors to power up to 5 SATA drives.

If you guys need more please ping me and I'll send more pics and try and provide more information. Here's a Google Drive link with images. I couldn't get the upload to work here for the post: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VNxYwic5RW-H47zCBkqbV34mOnADjai9?usp=sharing

 

Please note: I KNOW it would probably make more sense to make a separate server to run Plex rather than shoehorn it into this device, but it would be more effective for my home situation to try and do it in a single unit.

 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, SNDS said:

I am an enterprise and NAS solution newb and that's putting it mildly

Have to start somewhere.

 

3 hours ago, SNDS said:

I am learning via firehose here, I know

Best way to learn .

 

3 hours ago, SNDS said:

Backplane retrofit

• I've been reading about why 45drives moved away from backplanes to direct wired and it makes me want to replace the backplanes in case of failure. See: https://45drives.blogspot.com/2015/03/our-biggest-design-decision-direct.html
• I need recommendations on how to replace these backplanes, if possible. I know that Linus and co. did it for their Storinator and discussed retrofitting it to remove their backplanes I just don't know what parts they used or how they went about it as they don't list parts or process the in the video description, and really, why would they? If Anthony is on these forums, would you chime in?

What's the case? Don't think I can help much here without knowing what we are dealing with. Million pictures would also help, just around how the drives mount currently.

 

As to backplanes I have the opposite opinion on this compared to 45 drives but that said I haven't used cheap ones and thus never had one fail. So I guess it's a bit of siutation matters. Direct cabling for you is going to be easier, that's my gut feel and is typically true when making modifications to cases.

 

3 hours ago, SNDS said:

SATA->SAS conversion

• Not sure what card I need as it would need to be able to support port multiplication at the backplane end assuming that #1 cannot be done easily.

It'll be much easier to use SAS cards at it's cross compatible and supports expanders where SATA often does not as it's an optional feature. Lots of cheap SAS HBAs on ebay, something like an LSI 9211-8i IT mode. If you want less HBA cards bump up to a 16i model card.

 

3 hours ago, SNDS said:

a new PSU (current PSU has custom pinned connectors, see spec list)

• This one is a doozy as I do not have any clue how to power 45 drives with a single PSU without having custom cables made based on the original. Any recommendations for supplying 45 drives power either via direct connection or via the existing backplanes which need 2 molex connectors to power up to 5 SATA drives.

Pretty sure a dual PSU Y split cable will work here, photo would also help here too. Modify pin outs if necessary, simple to do.

 

Note: Missed your link to photos while typing until I got to the end. If you can get them posted in the thread that would be nice though.

[SNDS]

Was finally able to the the images uploaded in this post. Let me know what other kinds of images you need, I have the thing partially disassembled presently. I have little in the way of information about the make of the case.

 

As for the PSU, I am hoping to come up with a solution that doesn't require pinouts. I'd rather just replace whatever is necessary for the PSU to just be a consumer grade PSU. The simpler the solution the better, if at all possible. In terms of the Y-split cable, how would that work? 

 

On the thought about power and Molex connectors, how many drives can be daisy chained on a single SATA->Molex adapter? Depending on that, I could get some extensions then connect them to the cables that Anthony showed me on Twitter. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JOXWDD0/?coliid=ITJN8TLL3GZZW&colid=1KXNVMB8L9CUI&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, SNDS said:

In terms of the Y-split cable, how would that work? 

They were used back in the day when people ran dual PSU for multi GPU systems. I don't know what the pin outs actually are for the for that extra 20/24 pin for the backplanes, does this actually come off the same cables as the motherboard ATX or totally separate? My assumption was these cables you mention are together off the same output of the PSU rather than being actually separate, maybe I'm wrong about that. If that is not the case and it's a completely separate thing then it'll be much harder to re-create it, would have to make it from multiple PCIe power cables by pulling the cables out and putting in to your own 20 pin connector. Lots of checking required to know what each pin is etc. Pretty sure it's just a row of +5v and a row of +12v then grounds. I would be comfortable doing it but I don't expect everyone else to be.

 

It's actually going to be a lot easier if you take out the backplanes, flip the disks 180 deg and use 90 deg SATA power and data connectors then figure a way to slightly secure the disks in the bays.

 

This way you can easily move to a standard PSU and look for one that has a decent amount of sata power connectors then use molex to sata for the rest, or get some custom cable mod cables with more sata power on them. You'll need to check maximum current on the correct rails and outputs etc, 45 disks isn't a small amount.

 

If it were me I'd go the route of keeping the backplanes and creating cables for a new PSU.

 

1 hour ago, SNDS said:

On the thought about power and Molex connectors, how many drives can be daisy chained on a single SATA->Molex adapter?

Check the HDD current spec then multiply by number of disks then check maximum support on the PSU rail.

[SNDS]

From what I can tell, the custom 20-pin and 24-pin hook up split off to all the various molex connectors. I'll try and remove the backplanes and send a few pictures for follow up. The concern I have about the backplanes is drive compatibility, Backblaze noted in a few of the articles regarding their open source plans that the backplanes and sata cards are finicky and seemingly only support a certain set of drives and is firmware dependent. I'm hoping this ends up not being the case. That said, I'll do some testing once I can hook up my monitor and setup Unraid. I'm hoping compatibility isn't a big deal with Unraid and the hardware will play nice.

[Stephen_m64]

Tried Unraid with this yet?

 

Thought it might be worthwhile to bump this old post rather then make a new thread.

 

I picked up one of these Storage Pod 3.0's in Sacramento a short while ago when backblaze was giving out a whole load of them free, was awesome to meet them and snag one.

 

Played with mine a bit and its a nice bit of server gear to get for free-ninety-nine, upgraded the ram on it and found a Xeon E3-1230 v2 to swap into it but still trying to decide on what is the best thing to do with mine. I also considered converting it to direct wire and removing the sata port multiplier backplanes but there are not any drop in solutions easily available.