Replacing a controller

[andrewds]

Hello:

Two of the disks in my pool are on a pci express mini to 2 port sata controller. I want to replace that controller with a 4 or 6 port one. Am I correct that I can do a straight replacement without informing DrivePool in any way? It should automatically recognize the 2 disks (poolpart) when the system boots after the card swap, correct?

Thanks.

[Shane]

Correct.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Mostly.  In some cases, the controllers may modify some of the disk reporting.  This is more common with USB enclosures.  But if you're using RAID (even to just pass the disks through), this could be an issue. 

Most likely, this shouldn't be a problem, at all, but it's worth mentioning, at least. 

As for a replacement, I recommend the LSI SAS 9207-8i (or the 9307-8i).  It's a bit pricy, but it's very good quality.  Though, it may be branded as Broadcom now, instead of LSI.

[andrewds]

Thanks @Christopher (Drashna)for the feedback. No raid, no raid controller, just pooled jbod. Alas the 9207/9307 are not available with mPCIe interface that I can find. This is a mini itx case with a GA-Z97N-WIFI wherein I've removed the wireless adapter (mPCIe) and replaced it with a 2 port SATA card so I could install 8 total disks (1 OS 2.5, 1 cache 2.5, 6 data 3.5). I'm planning to remove the 6 3.5 disks replace with 10 all flash 2.5. Same for the external iSCSI attached parity. Then I'll just have 2 traditional spinning for system image/backups.

Built a custom bracket with rails to attach the existing storage, just going to redesign and do it again. Will give me a chance to inspect the wiring etc too.

Unnecessary, could just buy something new, but a fun challenge plus I like the case.