[Discuss] Many SATA drives

[Ward Vandewege]

Hi Daniel,

On Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 06:34:42PM -0400, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
> We would like to build a computer with many SATA drives, but NOT use
> a hardware RAID controller (because we want to be able to move
> individual drives to another system, connect them to a motherboard
> SATA port, and have the original data available). Is there a way to
> get a non-RAID SATA controller with 4 or more ports, or is there
> some way to find out if a particular RAID controller will allow the
> drive geometry to pass through without modification? Our initial
> experience with an LSI 8 port controller was that it always messed
> with the drive, even if you didn't ask for any RAID.

Yes. The situation with hardware raid controllers has become quite
ridiculous. I do not understand how most of those companies are still in
business. Their products tend to be riddled with (firmware) bugs that make
largely unusable except in very specific configurations (which usually does
not include a very standard software raid setup on a Debian Squeeze, say). 

That said, there are some multi-port SATA controllers out there that do not
get in the way. I recently came across this overview

  http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10

which I found very useful. 

Thanks,
Ward.



> 
> I am also thinking of "multiport" controllers but have similar
> worries about them. For example the Syba controller used in the
> Backblaze pod is very cheap and apparently supports 16 drives:
> 
>   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124027
> 
> This isn't the sort of information a salesperson or user manual will
> cover, but perhaps someone has experience. If no one answers, I will
> probaby just buy one and test it.
> 
> Daniel Feenberg
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at blu.org
> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 
> 
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> 

Ward Vandewege.

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