How do I connect SuperMicro 3U backplane to ASRock motherboard?

[fatefree]

Hi guys, I am building a homelab nas/plex server and I am only familiar with desktop builds. I recently purchased a  SuperMicro CSE-836E16-R92JBD 3U 16 Bay 3.5" Server Chassis with a BPN-SAS2-836EL1 Backplane. My question is, what do I need to purchase to connect this to an AsRock x470D4u motherboard? I assume something in the PCIe slot, perhaps an HBA SAS controller? I'm just not sure which one I would need that will handle all 16 drives. If anyone can help me or recommend me what I need, I'd very much appreciate it as its the only question blocking my build. Thanks! 

 

PS, are there special cables I would need as well?

[Lurick]

Depending on the number of drives you want to connect up a couple SFF-8087 cards and cables would get the job done.

https://www.newegg.com/lsi00301-sata-sas/p/N82E16816118182

[Windows7ge]

Based on Google Images it looks to have 3 SFF-8087 connectors. I can't say if all or only 1 or 2 are required @leadeater thoughts?

 

As for how to connect it all you'll need either an HBA (typically SAS) or a RAID controller. (I'm more partial to HBAs)

 

The LSI 9207-8i would allow you to connect two of those ports (using SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cables)

The LSI 9201-16i would allow you to connect all 3 (with one spare) but I'm wondering if the 3rd port is just for daisy chaining or something else. I'd have to read the details on it.

 

You may be able to use some of the ports on the motherboard by using a Reverse SFF-8087 breakout cable. I believe the Reverse cables allow you to connect SAS/SATA ports on motherboards to backplanes but let someone double-check me there before going that route.

[fatefree]

Oh I should mention they will be eventually 16x WB Reds, not ssds. I found this snippet on another post which might answer the ports:

 

BPN-SAS2-846EL1
The most popular backplane for "home labs".
It has one expander, so you haven't "dual port", but this backplane supports SAS2 protocol.
You haven't any issue with disk larger than 2Tb but bandwidth will be a limit with SSD (24x SSD will saturate 4x SAS2 lanes)
You use SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable (just one) for connect the HBA to the backplane
It seems, you can connect 2 cables in order to have better bandwidth (8 lanes instead of 4 lanes), but i have no experience with this.

 

So it sounds like maybe that third is for chaining, but I would only need the 1 anyway since I don't have any SSDs to care about. Since I plan on using Unraid rather than hardware raid, maybe one SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable and one https://www.newegg.com/lsi00301-sata-sas/p/N82E16816118182 SSF card linked above will be all I need?

[Windows7ge]

Do you have a specific model number on those WD reds? I'd like to check if plugging in both SFF-8087 cables would actually be worthwhile or not (for unRAID probably not but I'm curious anyways ).

 

Basically double the cables would double the bandwidth available to each independent drive. With your intended configuration this would allow ~1.5Gbit(187.5MB/s) per disk. I have not seen many consumer SATA drives claim to have higher though-put than that but it's worth checking. Why say no to performance if it's only 1 cable away?

[fatefree]

39 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Do you have a specific model number on those WD reds? I'd like to check if plugging in both SFF-8087 cables would actually be worthwhile or not (for unRAID probably not but I'm curious anyways ).

 

Currently they exist only in my imagination, with Unraid I plan to add drives to it over the course of the year. I know what you mean though! Im sure the cable is cheap, the only hang up is whether it might cause any complications or not. At the moment I'm more worried about whether this is going to work at all haha.

[Jarsky]

Section 3-1: https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS2-846EL.pdf

Shows that you can use a single SAS connector, but you can connect 2 for cascading / failover /  multipathing. 

 

So yeah get a LSI 9207-8i or 9211-8i and 2 SFF8087 cables and connect both of them, so in the event that one path fails it will automatically fail over to the second. 

 

[PianoPlayer88Key]

I see some 9200-16e cards on eBay starting at $24 ... But I have no experience with them.  I've considered getting one sometime, but haven't decided yet if it's the right thing for me.  I wonder if they might work in this situation the OP is talking about (so they can use 16 drives on one card)?  Maybe someone else has had experience with these and could chime in?

 

[fatefree]

Thanks guys this is incredibly helpful! The only thing I'm not understanding is if this backplane is actually powering all these drives, but I'm going to wait till my case arrives and I think it will be more obvious then. Thank you!

[Jarsky]

19 minutes ago, PianoPlayer88Key said:

I see some 9200-16e cards on eBay starting at $24 ... But I have no experience with them.  I've considered getting one sometime, but haven't decided yet if it's the right thing for me.  I wonder if they might work in this situation the OP is talking about (so they can use 16 drives on one card)?  Maybe someone else has had experience with these and could chime in?

 

 

The 'e' denotes external so typically this type of card is for connecting diskshelfs- the sff8088 ports will stick out the back. 

Because the OP is using a chassis with a backplane that has a built in SAS splitter he doesnt use a 16 channel (4 port) SAS card, he only uses a 1 or 2 port. 

If you were using say a Norco though then you'd want something like a 9201-16i 

[Jarsky]

11 minutes ago, fatefree said:

Thanks guys this is incredibly helpful! The only thing I'm not understanding is if this backplane is actually powering all these drives, but I'm going to wait till my case arrives and I think it will be more obvious then. Thank you!

 

Yes the backplane provides power, the manual i linked to above shows you on section 2-1 where you connect power to on the back of the backplane.