[OmniOS-discuss] Direct SAS or Expander?

[Bob Friesenhahn]

I am looking at a 16-bay SuperMicro chassis.  There is the option of 
using a SAS HBA with 16 channels (e.g. Avago SAS 9300-16i) and no 
expander or a SAS HBA with 4 channels and an expander.  Most drives 
would be SAS but I might want to fit a couple of SATA SSDs.

Is there a strong technical reason (performance, reliability, uptime) 
to prefer one or the other with OmniOS and zfs?

The main technical issue I am already aware of is that one should not 
put SATA devices behind an expander.

I am leaning toward the 16 channels and no expander solution since it 
feels better from a failure-mode standpoint, because it lessens 
contention, and because it should allow use of SATA SSDs.

Bob
-- 
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/