Storage expansion recommendations

DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

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I'm looking to upgrade my disk storage at home using a rackmount disk array, specifically a direct attached storage array over a miniSAS connection.

So far I've only found a single candidate that checks all my boxes, unfortunately cannot find anywhere locally (online) that sells it although Amazon will ship it here for quite a price though.

It's the Lenovo ThinkServer SA120: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LSQOY6G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=AJG8OTEYSCAZI&psc=1

This one has a single controller and PSU and drive caddies still have to purchased separately but it's still within the price bracket I'm willing to spend.

What's also really important is that this unit is not nearly as deep as many of the others and will easily fit into a 600mm server rack.


So, anyone have any ideas if I can get these locally anywhere or a similar solution that I can get locally?
 
I've requested more info from one of my suppliers on this, will let you know in the morning.
 
That's some serious dedication to Linux ISOs / 4K prawns :p

Curious what your total budget is w/ drives etc?
 
HavocXphere said:
That's some serious dedication to Linux ISOs / 4K prawns :p

Curious what your total budget is w/ drives etc?
Click to expand...

I've been archiving my Bluray disks for a while now and recently got a new drive so I can rip 4K Blurays and these puppies take up some serious space.

I am hoping to spend no more than R10-15k on the hardware without the drives, this includes the disk shelf, the HBA, cable and caddies. Drives I will populate as I need them.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I've been archiving my Bluray disks for a while now and recently got a new drive so I can rip 4K Blurays and these puppies take up some serious space.

I am hoping to spend no more than R10-15k on the hardware without the drives, this includes the disk shelf, the HBA, cable and caddies. Drives I will populate as I need them.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a cool project.

Have you checked this vs online storage? Though BDs might be a bit much for daily use
 
CamiKaze said:
Not sure why you don't just keep your BD's on bluRay disks.
Just take care of your disks properly instead of going this rather expensive route.
Click to expand...
And then whenever you want to watch something you have to find the physical disc and put it in a player like this is the 90's?
 
CamiKaze said:
Not sure why you don't just keep your BD's on bluRay disks.
Click to expand...

The original disks are still there, along with the content on them.

Just take care of your disks properly instead of going this rather expensive route.
Click to expand...

I do take care of my disks, I rip them once and then they stay in their cases. They're a lot easier to access over the network this way.
 
Doesn't look like I'm going to find anything locally that can match this.

The Lenovo unit with 4 drive caddies, a LSI HBA and MiniSAS cable comes to around R12500 with shipping and duties. Nothing comes close to that locally, where I'd be paying about double that just for the unit.

I'll probably pull the trigger on this next week.
 
Well I did pull the trigger, everything has arrived already except the drive caddies.

Set up went surprisingly easy, the HBA arrived earlier than I expected from eBay and came with the correct firmware already on board so no fiddling with firmware flashing. The DAS came with a MiniSAS cable in the box, so I guess I have two now :D

FreeNAS had no issues picking up the HBA and the SA120 and read a test drive that I installed perfectly.

Only issues I still need to resolve are the rails where the included ones are too long to fit into my cabinet, might just get a shelf to put it on - really difficult finding rail kits for 600mm deep cabinets.

And at some point I want to replace the internal fans with better quality ones, after tuning them with a python script I found online they're quiet enough but don't have a pleasant sound profile so may get annoying after a while.

Next stop, the hard drives which will have to wait until next month.
 
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