I've been using this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816117157
for my Solaris/Open Indiana installations because it has 8 ports. One of the issues that this card seems to have, is that certain failures can cause other secondary problems in other drives on the same SAS connector. I use mirrors for my storage machines with 4 pairs, and just put half the mirror on one side and the other drive on the other side. This, in general, has solved my problems. When a drive fails, I might see more than one drive no functioning. I can remove (I use hot swap bays such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994097) a drive, and restore the other to the pool to find which of the failed drives is actually the problem. What had happened before, was that my case was not moving enough air, and the hot drives had caused odd problems with failure. For the money, and the experience I have with these controllers, I'd still use them, they are 3GBs controllers. If you want 6GBs controllers, then some of the other suggestions might be a better choice for you. Gregg On Oct 24, 2012, at 10:59 PM, Jerry Kemp <sun.mail.lis...@oryx.cc> wrote: > I have just acquired a new JBOD box that will be used as a media > center/storage for home use only on my x86/x64 box running OpenIndiana > b151a7 currently. > > Its strictly a JBOD, no hw raid options, with an eSATA port to each drive. > > I am looking for suggestions for an HBA card with at least (2), but (4) > external eSATA ports would be nice. I know enough to stay away from the > port expander things. > > I do not need the HBA to support any internal drives. > > In reviewing the archives/past post, it seems that LSI is the way to go. > I would like to spend USD $200 - $300, but would spend more if > necessary for a good, trouble free HBA. I made this comment as I went > to look at some of the LSI cards previously mentioned, and found they > were priced $500 - $600 and up. > > TIA for any pointers, > > Jerry > _______________________________________________ > zfs-discuss mailing list > zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
