unRaid and eSata + Icy Box IB-3664SU3

Hello Guys,

i cant fit enough hdds in my T20 so i thought to use an eSata-Card with the Icy Box IB-3664SU3. Will this work with unRaid? And when yes, what is a good eSata card?

Thanks!

When I was looking for an eSATA enclosure to expand my HP Microserver Gen8 I looked at that one from Icy Box and rejected it because it only supports 3 Gb/s eSATA. I chose the ICYCube MB561U3S-4SB from Icy Dock instead, which supports 6 Gb/s eSATA. A suitable eSATA card is one that supports the FIS-based port multiplier used in the enclosure. I chose an IOCREST (SYBA) SI-PEX40063, which provides two internal 6 Gb/s SATA ports and two external 6 Gb/s eSATA ports and needs two PCIe lanes. There's the cheaper SI-PEX40065, which only requires a x1 slot. I chose the x2 card because I planned on using the two internal ports (for cache SSDs) as well as one of the external ones and the HP Gen8 has just a single x16 slot. I keep the parity drive (only one at the moment - this server is running 6.1.9) on the internal controller and only have data drives on the port multiplier and everyday performance is excellent. Parity checks are slowed a little by the overheads and the fact that four disks are sharing a single 6 Gb/s link (my reason for rejecting 3 Gb/s eSATA) but I'm very happy with the setup. The only downside is the cost of the ICYCube - almost as much as a second Gen8, but similar to the Icy Box.

I think that card uses Marvell chipset so be careful that it may not work together with VT-d

The SI-PEX40065 (PCIe x1) uses the Marvell 88SE9215, which is on RobJ's list, and the SI-PEX40063 (PCIe x2) uses the Marvell 88SE9235, which isn't. Personally, I don't use VT-d anyway.

EDIT: How about this one?

Another advantage of the ICYCube is that it has an internal power supply. The disk activity LEDs are rather feeble though - mere pin pricks of light. It hardly matters but I wonder why they bothered.

Thanks you!

I have an internal SAS-Card so i thought to buy an miniSAS to eSata Cable i think that should work or? Will such a case have an impact on the performance?

I don't think there is such a thing as a mini SAS to eSATA cable but I'm happy to be proved wrong. I did Google the term and it came up with this which is clearly wrong as it's the SAS end that's external while the SATA end is internal. On the other hand I do know that cables with a SATA connector on one end and an eSATA connector on the other exist.

Thanks you!

 

I have an internal SAS-Card so i thought to buy an miniSAS to eSata Cable i think that should work or? Will such a case have an impact on the performance?

It's a rare cable but it does exist:

http://www.wahsondg.com/product/product.php?lang=en&itemid=143

Note however that this would be a good option if the external case had 4 eSATA ports, since you'll only be using one port it's considerably cheaper to use a SATA to eSATA cable.

I think the have always only 1 eSata connector...

I think the have always only 1 eSata connector...

They are rare but they do exist:

http://www.lycom.com.tw/MB4e4s.htm