looking for activity LED cables, for RAID enclosures

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SilverNodashi

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Hi everyone.

I'm looking for a LED Activity cable, for a 4 port SATA / SAS RAID card, to connect to a RAID enclosure. The cards I use are typically Adaptec 1220/1420/1430's, which has standard SATA ports (i.e. doesn't use a mini SAS port) and has 4x LED connectors (indicating HDD activity / failure) on the card. The RAID enclosures are typically 4bay ICY Dock units which has 8 LED (4x 2pin) PINS at the back which I can then connect directly to the RAID card.

But, neither the RAID cards of RAID enclosures come with these cables included. My suppliers also doesn't have, or know where I can get them.

I'm looking for something similar to like this:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21030


I have seen cables like these in servers, and some use a flat ribbon cable (same as the internal serial cables / old IDE cables) with a 8PIN connector. But, I don't know where to actually get any.

Does anyone know where I can get such a cable in the JHB area?
 
Just FYI, the operating system as well as RAID card (+ drivers) needs to support them.

Unfortunately I don't know where you'd get them, try some of the server resellers (google)?
 
How, exactly, do the OS interface with a piece of copper wire?


And, FYI I did google before I asked here. None of my suppliers has such cables in stock since pre-built servers use more expensive RAID cards + RAID backplanes. More expensive RAID cards carry the singal via the mini SAS cables so it's not necessary for these cables.
 
SoftDux-Rudi said:
How, exactly, do the OS interface with a piece of copper wire?
Click to expand...
I mean that the underlying OS or the RAID card and Driver for the RAID card has to have some kind of way to know which drive is which and then activate the LED. If it is hardware RAID I'm guessing it would probably be on the BIOS itself and you wouldn't need to worry about it (hopefully).

SoftDux-Rudi said:
And, FYI I did google before I asked here. None of my suppliers has such cables in stock since pre-built servers use more expensive RAID cards + RAID backplanes. More expensive RAID cards carry the singal via the mini SAS cables so it's not necessary for these cables.
Click to expand...
Was just a suggestion...

But I had a look at that thread you posted originally. Creating such a cable would be very easy. Have you got the LEDs already? Or do you want a cable plus connectors + LEDs at the ends?
 
Gnome said:
I mean that the underlying OS or the RAID card and Driver for the RAID card has to have some kind of way to know which drive is which and then activate the LED. If it is hardware RAID I'm guessing it would probably be on the BIOS itself and you wouldn't need to worry about it (hopefully).
Click to expand...

It's hardware RAID cards, not fakeRAID :)

Gnome said:
But I had a look at that thread you posted originally. Creating such a cable would be very easy. Have you got the LEDs already? Or do you want a cable plus connectors + LEDs at the ends?
Click to expand...
The thing is, I honestly don't know where to get the connectors. I even thought of using old internal serial connectors, but don't know where to actually get them
 
Some backplanes and cages have LED indicators.

Plus is - some backplanes are hot swappable (the hard drives).
 
Ok, so I managed to get some connectors from RS Components in Kayalami, after having to drive through there and find someone who knew what I needed. The guy whom I spoke to over the phone didn't know what I wanted, probably cause they don't make or stock cables for this purpose. But another guy immediately gave me a 8pin MOLEX connector block and some connector pins and suggested I get some 8-core alarm cable or something similar to connect them together.

Well, I took CAT5 cable, and it works well. But, connecting those small pins to the cables with my big hands wasn't fun. I'd still like to know who supplies these cables ready-made-up.
 
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