17 replies to this topic

[jimmydrac]

Hello all. First let me say thanks to everyone here for some great information. I am currently using WHS V1. I have 4 2TB Seagate LP drives which are almost filled with no duplication. I have almost everything backed up offline. I am interested in migrating to WHS 2011 but of course the whole "DE Thing". LOL! I am not here to start a flame war, just need some quick info. I see here that many people are going the Raid 5 route with Highpoint cards, like the 2680 or the 2720. Now my problem is that I know I will need more than 8 drives. I currently have the 4 2TB in the WHS now, and have 6 more empty Seagate LP 2TB that I purchased before the price jump. I have read on Newegg reviews where people could not use more than 1 of Highpoint's cards at a time, and could not intermix them either. A 2680 and a 2720 for example. My question is if anyone knows FOR SURE if the Highpoint cards will work with this intel expander card RES2SV240. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16816117207. If the controller card would see all the drives connected to the expander and allow me to build an array using ALL of them, this would solve my problem. But I can't build a system where I am limited at 8 drives in the array. I know Highpoint has controller cards with 6 SAS connectors, but there are EXPENSIVE. Trying to keep costs down. I know it won't be cheap, but I am not willing to pay 600-800 for what WHS V1 does now.

Thanks

JB

[ikon]

I would be surprised if it's impossible to have more than one RocketRaid in a system. I can understand that you will likely have to change the config of the one that you don't want to boot from. If you want to boot from something other than the RocketRaid cards (e.g. an IcyDock RAID) I would imagine it would be best to config both of the RR's to not be bootable. Caveat: I don't own any RR cards, but I've used many brands of RAID cards, including SCSI types, and I've always been able to have multiple cards in a single system. So, don't give up hope yet: no doubt pcdoc or no-control can give you the low down on using multiple RR cards.

[jimmydrac]

I have set up raid array's before, but I have never used more than 1 card for it. I am just going off what other users on newegg and other sites have said about Highpoint cards. I would be happy if they were wrong, or maybe they didn't know how to configure them properly.

[ikon]

As I said, I suspect there could be issues if more than one card is set as bootable. In theory, even that should work, but I've seen problems with such arrangements in the past.

[no-control]

Yes you can use 2 RAID cards. At minimum you'll need to create at least 2 separate arrays though. You can also use one of these and a SAS expander as well.

BTW I didn't see anything on newegg stating that.

[diehard]

Check out Serve The Home http://www.servethehome.com/ they have some in depth reviews on SAS expanders and larger server setups.

http://www.servetheh...ry-2011-update/

[yodafett]

On the other end you could go for something like this http://www.lsi.com/p...9280-24i4e.aspx
With 24 Internal drives supported and 240 drives total it should hold you off for a bit.
or for about half you could get http://www.lsi.com/p...AS9260-16i.aspx which supports 16 devices internal plus 128 total.
but for about 450 you could get a RocketRaid 2740 which buy itself supports 16 drives

[pcdoc]

Considering you would have to buy two raid cards, I would go with the 2740 ($449) as yodafett stated which handles 16 Sata 2/3 drives. A little more money but in the long run will be less hassle. The problem is not running multiple cards it is more how your BIOS will handle it. Test your mother board first then that will answer your quest. I will be facing the same dilemma soon and plan on going the 2740 route.

[jimmydrac]

BTW I didn't see anything on newegg stating that.

It was a review for the 2760. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16816115095. The reviewer states that you can't use 2 highpoint cards together. This is the problem I am running into. I only want 1 array with around 20 drives in the array. I will be starting at with 10, and then adding to the array as needed. I am not really wanting to go the UNRAID route, again not trying to start a flame war, and from experience I know that hardware raid is better, but I can't seem to find a cost effective way to to build a 20 drive array without a controller card that is 600-800 dollars. I was just curious about the 2720 card and expanders as I had never heard of anyone using them together to build a single array.

[yodafett]

there is a highpoint that supports 24 but it is around 850. Also most raid cards I know need you to have a GUID Uefi partition if above 8 drives

[JediTim]

_{Thankfully right now I have capacity left over with the 2680. I guess in the future I will either go to 3TB drives or get the HighPoint 2740. As I keep adding BluRay disks my capacity is increasing,}

[ikon]

I'm wondering if your expectations are a little out of line here. Seems to me that $450 to reliably control 16 drives is really pretty cost effective. Granted, the price does go up a fair bit if you want 20+ drives, but that is a lot of drives; it's gonna cost something to have that many.

[ImTheTypeOfGuy]

I'm wondering if your expectations are a little out of line here. Seems to me that $450 to reliably control 16 drives is really pretty cost effective. Granted, the price does go up a fair bit if you want 20+ drives, but that is a lot of drives; it's gonna cost something to have that many.

Personally, I wouldn't want that many drives on one card. Maybe it is my lack of experience but I think I would call it quits at 10. I don't even think I would want two 10 drive arrays in one box. I would probably put it in two boxes to ensure there are no speed issues. I would test both arrays in one box of course but I doubt I would stay with it. I guess I am just overly cautious.

[yodafett]

ITTOG, I run servers daily at work with 14-16 drives in them not to mention SANS with over 300 drives in them. The Hightpoint cards should be able to handle the drives easily and I know the LSI can without issue but then again LSI was the creator of the original SCSI chips and bus.

[ikon]

ITTOG, I run servers daily at work with 14-16 drives in them not to mention SANS with over 300 drives in them. The Hightpoint cards should be able to handle the drives easily and I know the LSI can without issue but then again LSI was the creator of the original SCSI chips and bus.

I think the real difference between the RR and LSI cards is that most, if not all, of the RR cards are 'hybrid' cards rather than full blown RAID cards like many of the LSI ones. Because of that, LSI can ensure that all aspects of the RAID are under their control. It's an advantage for the LSI, but the customer pays for it too - the RR cards are significantly cheaper.

[yodafett]

Oh I agree ikon, I would never buy an LSI but am happy to recycle them from the work servers to the home servers as need be. Currently my WHS is currently using a Dell PERC 6/e to connect to a external DAS box and to a LTO4 tape drive but the dell perc are currently rebadged LSI.

[pcdoc]

I certainly would not shy away from a single card that runs that many drives. I also would not mind running two cards/arrays if it was more cost efficient. The one advantage to dual cards is they are cheaper which could afford you a spare. In addition, having two arrays allows to upgrade say, 2T to 3T a bit easier that a huge single array. Given that I have 2-3 arrays going at any one time, in the past year I have had 1 drive and one controller card go bad and both where a 5 minute fix as I had a spare. If I had one of the high end 400-600 controllers, I would less likely have one on the shelf. From the initial cost perspective, as I stated earlier I would rather have a single card. The issue is you still have to a strategy for up time. Just some thoughts.

[no-control]

I tried posing 3 times but apparently the forums are having hyperlinking issues I'm not rewriting it again.

Cliffs:

Your doing it wrong. Either drop some cash or be realistic

3 options
- Run multiple 2680 with multiple arrays
- Run a 2680 with a SAS expander like this http://www.provantag...01~4CHEN11K.htm
- Drop cash on a big boy controller if you want to run a big boy RAID

BTW your newegg reviewer is dumb for trying to combine different controllers into a single array sorry that doesn't work with any company.