No-name sata card

[jagdtigger]

Hello all!

So i just found this during moving:

https://content.section9.me/im/tnf/sata_card.jpg(image larger than 4 MB)

Aside from the bandwidth issues (use case not affected by it, small SSD array for less speed sensitive VM’s to take off some of the load from the main arrays) will this work with TN Scale?
For the foreseeable future im going to be very short on money and i dont even know if a sas expander will work with SATA devices…

[Farout]

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

This resource was originally created by user: jgreco on the TrueNAS Community Forums Archive. Please DM this account or comment in this thread to claim it. In the last year or two, we’ve had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA Port Multipliers are some of the cheapest hardware, designed to make a number of hard drives acc…

[Fleshmauler]

@jagdtigger

i dont even know if a sas expander will work with SATA devices

Edited to clarify because I didn’t like my original wording:

SATA drives work on SAS controllers. SAS drives do NOT work on SATA controllers. And of course, SATA & SAS drives will both work with their own respective controllers.

Your use case of SATA drives on a SAS controller is actually perfect, functional, and is wholly recommended for TrueNAS.

Lotta cheap LSI HBAs for $15-30 USD on ebay which’ll work great. I’d recommend saving up for a bit & getting something like that & then confirming it is flashed to latest firmware in IT mode (ask on forums if you need help doing so) than risking your data.

[jagdtigger]

Thanks for the info, shouldve started with taking off the heatsink. Looks like this is the card i have (SU-SA3006.V1 so google can find this more easily):

Several doubts about a PCIe SATA Controller Card

In short it has 3 asmedia chips. ASM1062 2 port sata chip, and two ASM1093 each making 3 ports out of one.

So if i understand correctly the worst it can do is bork the array hooked to it without wrecking the rest of the system?
(The rest of the drives are either on a lsa raid card flashed to IT mode or the mobo sata ports.) If so i might hook it up and hammer it to see if it can take it or not. If it cant then goes back in the drawer, if it can though then it can stand in temporarily until i get a bigger raid card or a sas expander (if it works with sta drives).

[jagdtigger]

My issue is as i mentioned in my post i moved and my NAS is fresh outta free sata ports (extended the storage for vm system disks with an extra vdev) but im practically dead broke ATM (the house where i moved in was in a partial-complete stage with working heating, windows, and entrance door, totally bare on the inside though) so i though this could stand in until i can get a “bigger” HBA (more SAS connectors) or a sas expander if it supports sata drives…

[Farout]

@jagdtigger

If so i might hook it up and hammer it to see if it can take it or not

I wouldnt. These cards are known to work ok for a while and then suddenly corrupt the pool. You will not see it coming.

[jagdtigger]

Guess ill have to drop the plans until 2025 then. Do these things have any sort of use-case where it can work reliably or should i just toss it in the recycling bin?

[Farout]

They can be usefull on a non raid type system. Or at least non-ZFS. But they are made to be as cheap as possible, so i wouldnt trust any data going through them.

If you are short on cash:

@Fleshmauler

Lotta cheap LSI HBAs for $15-30 USD on ebay

[jagdtigger]

Ill keep that in mind, “use only for replaceable data” (in other words games/programs )…

Thanks for the help @Farout and @Fleshmauler.