Backplane Configurations

[Bmoney]

I have backplane Supermicro BPN-SAS2-846E1
I want suggestion on a HBA that I can run dual connection to this backplane with It is not the E2 version is it possible what do I have to do?

[dalekphalm]

Can you clarify what your actual question is? Any SAS HBA will work with this. If it's a straight backplane (no built-in expander) then you'll need to get an HBA with four mini-SAS connectors to fully connect all 24 drives. Or alternatively, two separate HBA's w/ 2 mini-SAS connectors each (these are more common and cheaper).

 

From reading through the user manual, it does appear to have a built-in expander.

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS2-846EL.pdf

Page 17

 

Assuming you have the EL1 version (not the EL2), you cannot run a dual connection to the expander, as that's an exclusive feature of the EL2 version.

[Bmoney]

48 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Can you clarify what your actual question is? Any SAS HBA will work with this. If it's a straight backplane (no built-in expander) then you'll need to get an HBA with four mini-SAS connectors to fully connect all 24 drives. Or alternatively, two separate HBA's w/ 2 mini-SAS connectors each (these are more common and cheaper).

 

From reading through the user manual, it does appear to have a built-in expander.

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS2-846EL.pdf

Page 17

 

Assuming you have the EL1 version (not the EL2), you cannot run a dual connection to the expander, as that's an exclusive feature of the EL2 version.

It is an sas expander

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Bmoney said:

It is an sas expander

See the second half of my quote from above.

49 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

From reading through the user manual, it does appear to have a built-in expander.

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS2-846EL.pdf

Page 17

 

Assuming you have the EL1 version (not the EL2), you cannot run a dual connection to the expander, as that's an exclusive feature of the EL2 version.

 

[Bmoney]

Just now, dalekphalm said:

See the second half of my quote from above.

 

I do see 3 sas ports the manual also show a connection for the E1. But from reading it seems like it can be used for fail over or Upload/ download

 

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Bmoney said:

I do see 3 sas ports the manual also show a connection for the E1. But from reading it seems like it can be used for fail over or Upload/ download

If I'm reading the manual correctly, only one of the SAS Ports (J0 - labeled as item #7 on Page 9) is connected to the internal Expander.

 

The other 2 SAS ports (J1 and J2) would be direct 4-channel cables.

 

If you have a SAS HBA with 3 or more Mini-SAS 4-channel ports on them, you can probably plug in all 3 of them, and you'll get full 4-channel bandwidth on each cable.

 

Whereas if you just use the main port (J0), you'll be limiting all your drives to a single 4-channel bandwidth.

 

How many drive bays are there in your unit? 12 or 24?

[Bmoney]

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

If I'm reading the manual correctly, only one of the SAS Ports (J0 - labeled as item #7 on Page 9) is connected to the internal Expander.

 

The other 2 SAS ports (J1 and J2) would be direct 4-channel cables.

 

If you have a SAS HBA with 3 or more Mini-SAS 4-channel ports on them, you can probably plug in all 3 of them, and you'll get full 4-channel bandwidth on each cable.

 

Whereas if you just use the main port (J0), you'll be limiting all your drives to a single 4-channel bandwidth.

 

How many drive bays are there in your unit? 12 or 24?

24 drive just got 24 SAS3 8Tb drives for $2K. This SAMBA servers will have Dual 10Gbe connects I am trying to max it out as much as possible. 

 

[dalekphalm]

3 minutes ago, Bmoney said:

24 drive just got 24 SAS3 8Tb drives for $2K. This SAMBA servers will have Dual 10Gbe connects I am trying to max it out as much as possible. 

 

Well the user guide for the Backplane is very vague about the purpose of J1 and J2 - but if it works anything like a normal Backplane, you would max out the connectors to give dedicated bandwidth to each quad-pairing of drives.

 

The weird thing is that it's a 24-drive backplane, yet there are only 3 SAS ports. SAS ports are 4-channel, which means you'd only be getting 12 channels worth of bandwidth out of 3 SAS connectors.

 

Now it's possible that the expander will simply take care of the remaining 12 drives - but it's just a very odd setup.

 

I'd grab an HBA with 3+ SAS ports on it, and try connecting up J0-J2 and doing some bandwidth testing. Compare that to just using J0.

 

But it clearly states that the EL1 version (which you say you have) does not support Dual-channel (meaning 2 SAS cables) load balancing on the expander.

[Bmoney]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

Well the user guide for the Backplane is very vague about the purpose of J1 and J2 - but if it works anything like a normal Backplane, you would max out the connectors to give dedicated bandwidth to each quad-pairing of drives.

 

The weird thing is that it's a 24-drive backplane, yet there are only 3 SAS ports. SAS ports are 4-channel, which means you'd only be getting 12 channels worth of bandwidth out of 3 SAS connectors.

 

Now it's possible that the expander will simply take care of the remaining 12 drives - but it's just a very odd setup.

 

I'd grab an HBA with 3+ SAS ports on it, and try connecting up J0-J2 and doing some bandwidth testing. Compare that to just using J0.

 

But it clearly states that the EL1 version (which you say you have) does not support Dual-channel (meaning 2 SAS cables) load balancing on the expander.

Thanks Playing around is half the fun of second equipment.