Re: Question: RAID cabinet for home use (vs "Backplane/Cage/Mobile Rack"?)

[Bill Hudacek <bill.hudacek@gmail.com>]

Roger Heflin wrote on 6/21/21 8:03 PM:
 > I have been using the 4 drives in to 3x5.25 bays and have a cheap 
10x5.25 bay case..  These 4 into 3 bay devices are all direct sata 
connections with minimal electronics and you need 4 sata connections, 
but less than 4 power connectors.  They are hot swap and usually have 
disk activity lights and usually have fans.
 >
 > The brand I have used in the past is IcyDock.
 >
 > There are few components to go wrong so they are really direct sata 
and/or sas connections. with very limited electronics to go wrong, but 
you need one port per drive.
 >

I looked at that '4 into 3 bay device' - seems to be intended for 
internal use, not a cabinet sitting on a shelf.  And - I need five 
bays to be able to just move my drives rather than redesign my storage.

What is your 'cheap 10x5.25 bay case'? My drives are 3.5 but that 
manufacturer may offer either drive adapters or a 3.5-based unit.

I found another product from Icy Dock - 
https://www.amazon.com/ICY-DOCK-MB975SP-B-R1-Tray-less/dp/B06X9P4BYL?th=1 
- but that requires an SATA connection for *each drive* (rather than 
port multiplier). This is more a backplane extender than a RAID cabinet.

I could of course replace the controller that I added-on so long ago - 
the card in the computer is a pedestrian "Marvell 88SE9123 PCIe SATA 
6.0 Gb/s controller" (but it has port multiplier, so 1 eSATA 
connection serves all 5 drives - which is pretty nice).

I've worked with 'octopus' SCSI controllers (in a data center, long 
time ago) with 8 cables coming out the back. I'm not sure what I would 
be able to find for a SATA external cabinet like the 'FlexCage' above. 
Does anyone have any controller suggestions for the FlexCage? With 5 
or more external 'pure' SATA connectors/ports instead of eSATA?

I'll poke around a bit more. Thanks for the tip - I'd never heard of 
Icy Dock or a '4 into 3 bay device' (what an awkward phrase :-) .

/Bill

 > On Mon, Jun 21, 2021 at 4:12 PM Bill Hudacek 
<bill.hudacek@gmail.com> wrote:
 >
 >     My 2021 Sans Digital TR5UT+B held 5 SATA disks. I had an eSATA
 >     connection to the host box. It went belly-up a few weeks ago.
 >
 >     After some careful searching, a good replacement seemed to be 
the Oyen
 >     Digital Mobius 3R5-EB3-M. Found it for about $300USD.
 >
 >     It was plug-and-play replace. Drives were being addressed by 
UUID in
 >     Fedora so no issues at all. It came right up.
 >
 >     However, smart reporting looks horrible even compared to the 
TR5UT+B
 >     (which had its own issues).
 >
 >     Here's what the TR5UT+B (old cabinet) reported for one disk in the
 >     unit (just the header section of smartctl -a):
 >
 >     === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
 >     Model Family:     Western Digital Red
 >     Device Model:     WDC WD20EFRX-68EUZN0
 >     Serial Number:    WD-WCC4M6HX8XCR
 >     Firmware Version: 0957
 >     User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
 >     Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
 >     Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
 >
 >     Here's what the Mobius reports now for the same disk:
 >
 >     === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
 >     Device Model:     Mobius  DISK1
 >     Serial Number:    WD-WCC4M6HX8XCR
 >     Firmware Version: 0962
 >     User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
 >     Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
 >     Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P 
showall]
 >
 >     The disk model is gone. The firmware version is wrong (cabinet 
instead
 >     of disk?!). I imagine firmware updates are impossible here.
 >
 >     The rest of it is unimpressive, too. No SCT (TLER) at all - not 
just
 >     ERC, but SCT Status, SCT Feature Control, SCT Data Table are all
 >     missing too.
 >
 >     All the disks in the cabinet are WD20EFRX-68EUZN0. So I believe 
they
 >     have SCT/TLER.
 >
 >     What RAID cabinets would be a better alternative? I have 5 
drives but
 >     an 8-bay cabinet would work too.
 >
 >     Obviously, SMART pass-through would be 'nice'. But so would SCT 
(ERC).
 >
 >     --
 >
 >     Kind Regards,
 >
 >     Bill Hudacek
 >     IT Architect
 >     Currently Un-Attached, free & independent
 >
 >