Hi, anyone could point me at an ELI5 about SAS hardware? I’d like to assemble a NAS using an old HP Z200, I want SAS because I’d get also a tape drive for backups and I cannot find SATA tape drives. For example, is a Dell Perc H310 pci-e card good for me? Can I avoid hardware RAID?

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    7 months ago

    Personally, I recommend the lsi cards. Those things are tanks. The lsi 8i (8 internal) has been my friend for many years without fail. It does support jbod, so no raid, and I hooked a tape drive up to it too.

    Tell me more about your tape drive though, I’m unhappy with mine and I’m looking to replace it

    • syaochan@feddit.itOP
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      7 months ago

      Sorry but I haven’t got the tape drive yet. I found an HP lto-5 ultrium 3000 on ebay but I’m not sure if it’s a good choice

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        7 months ago

        Feel free to ping me if you make the jump, I learned a lot about it. Biggest thing I can recommend is double triple make sure everything supports ltfs, it will make your life 1000% easier.

  • TCB13@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Yes the Dell H310 will work, but be around 40$. Other good options:

    • Supermicro AOC-S3008L-L8E LSI 9300-8i - should sell for around 40$
    • Dell H200 IT - less expensive, like 25$

    There are also other cards from less known brands, just search ebay or aliexpress for LSI 9211-8i or LSI 9207-8i.

    • syaochan@feddit.itOP
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      7 months ago

      I just found a dell h200 for 27€ shipping included on aliexpress. It should be already flashed in IT mode, right? This screen pic is in the description:

  • phanto@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    What I know: https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/A_guide_to_mdadm No need to do hardware raid, mdadm is great. I got an HBA card off of art of server on eBay, and have ungodly amounts of disk. Also, am ungodly power bill… You can stick regular SATA drives into a SAS Bay, but not SAS drives into a SATA bay. Some HP equipment is bitchy about non -HP drives, cards, etc. I saw a fair amount of “Do RAID 6!” But I found on my hardware that RAID 5 and a hot standby was moderately faster. Try not to mix drive sizes, it messes things up and wastes space. Have fun!