TrueNAS Core and LSI 9207-4i4e Compatible 4/8 bay SAS External Enclosure?

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Hello,

I’ve got TrueNAS Core running on a repurposed Dell Optiplex 5040 SFF with an LSI 9207-4i4e in it. The 4 internal channels are connected to 4 enterprise SATA SSDs with a breakout cable and work great (so far).

The external connector is an SFF-8088. I’m looking for a 4 or 8 bay hotswap JBOD that I can connect to it. (I know I can’t use more than 4 bays without an expander, but in my research so far, there’s not a huge price difference between the 4 and 8 bay models I’ve found, so it’s conceivable it might be cheaper to get the 4 bay).

I know the best solution would be to rebuild the whole thing in a case that actually fits it, but my budget is about $300 or less, so I can’t really do that right now.
Eventually, I want to move the whole thing into an HL15, but that’s going to be at least a year from now.

The JBOD will sit on my desk, about 3 feet away (it’s a big desk). I know the drives will make noise, but I’m hoping for something with reasonable fans.

I tried a QNAP DL-400S. TrueNAS sees the drives connected to it, but throws all sorts of SCSI errors when doing anything as demanding as creating a pool.

I’ve done some research and this is apparently a known issue as the QNAP enclosure can’t keep up with the commands issued by the LSI card, and the solution is to either disable NCQ or get a different enclosure, and the card doesn’t let you disable NCQ on a per-disk level.

iStar has a number of SFF-8088 and SFF-8644 HD MiniSAS-based solutions, and I know there are stupidly expensive cables that go from 8088 to 8644. I have no idea what to choose given my options here. I’m not sure what I’m losing out on by just sticking with 8088 on the JBOD. Probably 12 Gbps SAS3? Is that even worth having with 4 or 8 enterprise SATA drives? My HBA is 6 Gbps SAS2, anyway.

http://www.istarusa.com/en/raidage/product_speclist.php?division=Storage&series=Custom%20Storage%20Tower&sub=miniSAS-SFF8088

I’ve also got 2U free in my rack, and am open to building/buying a reasonably quiet 2U JBOD.

Are there any other alternatives I should be looking at? My current two-bay NAS has a drive that threw a bad blocks error at me on one of the drives and failed a SMART test and then decided it was fine on reboot, so I’d like to expedite this purchase if I can as I don’t trust that drive at all anymore.

Thanks!

2

Considering your setup and budget constraints, you might want to explore iStarUSA’s SFF-8088 MiniSAS-based JBOD solutions. Ensure compatibility with your LSI card and TrueNAS Core. If noise is a concern, look for models with reasonable fan noise levels. Avoid the QNAP DL-400S due to compatibility issues. Keep in mind your future expansion plans when choosing between 4 and 8-bay models.

3

The iStarUSA enclosures you mentioned offer a variety of options for SFF-8088 and SFF-8644 connections. While the SFF-8644 connector may offer higher performance with SAS 3 compatibility, given that your HBA is SAS2, the benefits might not be fully realized. Therefore, sticking with the SFF-8088 connection should suffice for your current setup with 6 Gbps SAS2 HBA and enterprise SATA drives.