[OmniOS-discuss] SuperStorage Server 6047R-E1R36L SAS Question

[Saso Kiselkov]

On 11/11/13, 2:28 PM, Tobias Oetiker wrote:
> Hi Saso,
> 
> Today Saso Kiselkov wrote:
> 
>> On 11/11/13, 2:05 PM, Tobias Oetiker wrote:
>>> We are looking at purchasing a new box. According to
>>> https://github.com/joyent/manufacturing/blob/master/parts-database.ods
>>> it seems that Joyent is using
>>>
>>> Supermicro SuperStorage Server 6047R-E1R36L with 7K3000 (and maybe
>>> soon 7K4000) disks.
>>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4u/6047/ssg-6047r-e1r36l.cfm
>>>
>>> We asked our system integrator for an offer on these boxes and he
>>> said, that he has several in the field and they wer cool, BUT he
>>> has seen problems with the on-board LSI 2308 and the backplane, and
>>> that he would recommend installing 5 extra LSI SAS controllers to
>>> directly connect each sas disk to a controller port ...
>>>
>>> Is this the reason that joyent lists all the firmware versions and
>>> one should make sure to use exactly these versions ?
>>>
>>> Any ideas ?
>>
>> I may be completely off, but I see no reason why using LSI SAS chips
>> installed on stand-alone extension cards is better than using the LSI
>> SAS chip installed on the motherboard. I smell an attempt at upsell...
> 
> this system has a sas expander on the backplane, so that all 36
> disks can be controlled from the single on-board LSI 2308
> 
> our integrater maintains that he has seen issues with the
> LSI SAS2X28 expander on the backplane of the 6047R-E1R36L.
> 
> I did find some messages from 2012 that there were issues but
> nothing recent.

I've got plenty of LSI SAS2x36 expanders (i.e. the 36-port version) -
never had any trouble with them. Unless there are some serious
mechanical issues (i.e. soldering problems etc.) I don't see a way there
could be problems. Your integrator probably has had bad experiences with
customers stuffing SATA drives and/or SSDs into the boxes and so they
may just want to cover their behinds.

Cheers,
-- 
Saso