Thanks Rev: I suspect life is going to be hard, the backplane is port multiplier, so it takes the 12 drives and stacks 1-5 on 1 sata port, 6-10 on 2, 11 on 3 and 12 on 4. About 6 or so months ago I was desperate to find manufactures of a raid controller that has port multiplier functionality, so I called 3ware. The nice fellow there said their web site had incorrect information and that none of their cards yet supported port multiplier, but were supposed to in a month or so, but even then would be unlikely to play nice with whatever backplane I had.
>From this I see I have a couple options: 1. Call Norco and see if they have a backplane that has 12 discrete Sata ports so I can connect to that break out cable you are speaking of. 2. Rip out the back plane and lose all those pretty blinking lights and hot swap 3. See if there is a hardware raid controller that will work with port multiplier As for the PCI, thanks for the m-itx link - that board looks NICE!!! Another website I have purchased from and came through for me is http://www.itxdepot.com/xcart/product.php?productid=1600&cat=32110&page=1. I am on their mailing list and I received this link yesterday. This mb is what started me serioulsy thinking about this. It looks to be the first m-itx mobo that supports SATA II. It also has a 1gb RJ45 and PCI-E. So once I have the SAN built (assuming it might work), how does one connect it to a server? Is there type of PCI card I need that has perhaps a gbic port or something? Not sure what the name is for such a thing, or if even that is how it is done? Thanks! -----Original Message----- From: Revrend Oddball [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:14 AM To: Todd Worden Subject: Re: [OF-users] noob crazy idea Well the issue i see in your plan is that i have seen very few M-ITX board with multiple PCI/PCIE slots I have seen one with both, but its built around the Core 2 duo Mobile platform and is rather pricy (but then again so is going fiber for most) Teh card you are looking at is going to be the biggest expsnse for the raid, that would be a 3ware 12 port contrroller of some sort. they average 500-700 depending on wich one you find. the cables will be easy if you do any shopping, the big part is to find out what kind of connector you have on the backplane of your sata array, if they are discrete your life will be easy as most controllers in their retail packageing will have a Minisas/Infiniband to discrete break out cable. her eis an example of the board i have seen that has PCI-e and PCI http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9642 On 1/24/08, Todd Worden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Patrick: > > Thanks for the response... > > Ok then from what you describe, I think I would need a SATA raid controller > that has at least 12 inputs on the inside, and 1 outward facing fiber port > that would presumably connect to 1 of the 4 SFP ports on my Netgear GSM > switch. I also think I would need to get 4 gbic modules, which I think are > inserted into these SFP ports, and then from there I could presumable > connect at most 3 other servers and get 2 Gigabit speed. > > Does this sound correct so far? > > How would I connect the switch to my servers? > > What type of card does this require? > > Presuming the fiber ports provide 2 gbit speed, would this be fast enough to > run virtual machines off a LUN? > > Shopping List: > M-ITX board (VIA C7 1.8GHz powerful enough?) > Sata Raid Controller (what type of external output type and cables would I > need?) > 4 Gbic modules > 3 ??? PCI cards > OF > > Am I missing anything else? > > Thanks! > > Todd Worden > Web-Wired, LLC > 434.906.0420 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.web-wired.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick > Donker > Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 6:00 AM > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [OF-users] noob crazy idea > > <nip> > > > > Is this a crazy idea, thoughts on how to approach this, or should I > > keep what I got going for me? > > > > > > > Todd, > What you describe is not crazy at all! All you need is a board powerful > enough to run OF and a Raid/Sata controller which is compatible with the > current 2.6 Linux kernel. > Once you have those you can smack OF on a partition and mount the rest > through iSCSI. > Shouldnt be all too hard to build > > -Patrick > _______________________________________________ > Openfiler-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users > > > __________ NOD32 2819 (20080124) Information __________ > > This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. > http://www.eset.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Openfiler-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users > -- A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. Stephen __________ NOD32 2820 (20080124) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users
