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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Help with LSI 9212-4i4 (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi, I have possibly messed up...

I scored a 10Tb SAS drive (Ultrastar DC HC330) and went looking for an interface card. I have ordered a 9212-4i4e, which has 4x SATA ports internal and one external SFF-8088 SAS port. I figured future drives I add were more likely to be sata than sas but my read of the manual is that the sata ports can also take SAS drives.

Trying to figure out what cables I need for SATA to SAS and got a bit lost. I then figured I could just loop the external SFF-8088 back inside the case and that looks like is really more for an external device that houses the SAS drives?

Help!

edit : link to specs

https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12353334

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (5 children)

SAS is an extension on SATA. You can connect 4 SATA drives to most SAS ports or 2 12gbps SAS drives. You can't connect a SAS drive to a SATA port.

J12 needs a mini-SAS breakout cable and each drive requires a PSU. J5-8 are already SATA ports. 8 total SATA drives or 4 SAS + 4 SATA drives are supported by the ports given.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thanks! SAS is totally new to me and there is a bit of a learning curve…. I am confused though as the manual refers to the 4 sata ports on the card and mentions that sas or sata devices can be connected?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'd have to read the documentation more for that board.

SAS drives can only connect to SAS controllers, SATA drives can connect to SATA or to SAS controllers but SAS drives cannot connect to SATA controllers.

If the 4 SATA ports goto a SAS controller then you could have 8 SAS drives connected at 6gbps or 4 connected "dual channel" at 12gbps or 8 SATA drives at 6gbps.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Specs are here if you are willing to have a look! https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12353334

Also sounds like the external SFF-8088 is data only and I somehow need to introduce power. Looping the cable back inside won't solve my problem?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, specs say 4 SAS ports only through the external connector and 4 internal SATA ports. The external SAS port can be used for SAS or SATA, the internal SATA ports are SATA only.

The external connector assumes you're using external enclosures. If you want to you can loop it back inside the case but it'll require the case to have up to 8 SATA power connectors which is slightly unusual (assuming you're using the internal SATA connectors as well).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Appreciate it. I am going down the road of a sata to sas adaptor one of the internal ports. I have spare connections on my power supply so hopefully it will all work out. Since I know now sas drives don’t work on sata ports I guess the main reason the adaptors exist is scenarios like this.

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