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I'm planning on buying two used Isilon EX12000 to connect to my Linux server. My question is, considering that there's FOUR SAS ports at the back of the EX12000, how many of these do you need to connect? All four, two or will it work with one? That is, I still need access to all 12 disks!
Usually, with storage racks, you connect one to the host and one to the next storage bay, but how does the EX12000 work in this regard?
I would also like to have any documentation on this expansion bay if it exists.
886
0
Posted April 25th, 2016 00:00
im not even sure if you can connect EX12000 to non Isilon hardware.
886
0
Posted April 25th, 2016 11:00
You won't able to use the EX12000 nodes in that fashion. These nodes are Linux "server" nodes - the SAS ports are set as initiators, not targets.
886
0
Posted April 26th, 2016 02:00
How sure are you about this? Because it doesn't make much sense!
Looking at pictures of the EX, all I see is a circuit board with a bunch of SAS/SATA cable connectors, and basically only ONE chip. With a heat sinc. This is _most likely_ the 'splitter' (or whatever that is in the SAS/SATA world, I keep forgetting the name for it).
The EX is the JBOD and the IQ is the controller. Right?
EX12000:
Doesn't look like a "server anything". Circuit board is way to empty.
IQ12000:
This DO however look like a "server"!
886
0
Posted April 26th, 2016 08:00
That's as may be, but it is dubious you'll be able to get this to work. It was never intended as an expansion for anything other than an Isilon. Also, it's super old...
886
0
Posted April 26th, 2016 08:00
Old means cheap
. At $60/box I guess I just have to take my chances. The seller say they've sold many of those, and say it will work. I was just hoping for absolute yes or no here I guess.
Thanx though, I'll let you know (if anyone should be interested) how it goes.
886
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Posted April 26th, 2016 16:00
If I remember correctly, when attaching an EX node to an Isilon node, 2 of the SAS ports were used. So that would be a reasonable starting point.
You are correct that the EX nodes are not servers, they are external disk enclosures. I don't know of any reason that it wouldn't work as a JBOD enclosure but of course that's outside their original design so YMMV. For $60 it seems like a worthy experiment though.
Good luck!
886
1
Posted May 15th, 2016 06:00
It turned out that with the host connected to port 3, everything was _EXTREMELY_ slow! Not sure why though, but connecting the host to port 1 on both bays, everything is now smooth as silk.
I just wished the locator/fault LED also worked, but it doesn't work from the controller firmware either, so it might be either the controller or the cable.
886
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Posted May 18th, 2016 09:00
Right you are - the EX12000 ports are not configured this way. Glad to see you got it working!
fransurbo
5 Posts
886
0
Posted May 14th, 2016 14:00
Works like a charm, straight out of the box!
I also bought a "LSI SAS 9202-16e 16-Port PCI-E 6Gb SAS / SATA Controller" (with four SFF-8644 ports) and four SFF-8644 to SFF-8470 cables). Connected port three on the host controller to port thee (the only one that didn't already have one of these small "condoms" on it
) on the first disk bay and port four on the controller to port three on the second.
Turned on the machine, and all disks was there! But looking at the configuration, I noticed that both bays was on the same controller chip (this controller card have two LSI2008 chips), so I moved the cable on port three to port two.
I've since moved the cables on the controller to port one and three and port 1 (just for symmetry
) on both disk bays.
I haven't yet tried to use TWO cables for each disk bay and I'm not sure what/if I'd gain anything by it. There's not something like 'bonding' for SAS/SATA, so..