PERC 6/E with simple JBOD enclosure

[charvett]

I've got a Dell server with a PERC 6/E attached to a Dell MD1120. It works very well and I'm very pleased with it's performance.

I'm now on the hunt for a disk based backup system. My initial thought is to purchase a basic 1U JBOD enclosure and use the unused connector on the PERC card. However, I've not been able to find anyone else who's used a PERC 6/E with a simple enclosure.

I'm looking at a couple of different models, but I'm open to any others. I plan to use 4 X 1.5TB SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration. The models I'm looking at are:

1. Enhance Technologies R4 ML
2. iStarUSA dAGE104U40-ML

The physical connections seem correct, they use a SFF8470 connection same as the PERC.

Does anyone have any experience using a cheap enclosure with a PERC 6?

Thanks in advance!

 

[wuzy]

As long as the enclosure uses SFF-8470 or SFF-8088, any of them will work on PERC 6/e. If using SFF-8088, make sure you buy a SFF-8470 to SFF-8088 cable instead.

I'm looking at a couple of different models, but I'm open to any others. I plan to use 4 X 1.5TB SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration.

I'm going to assume you typed that by mistake and meant JBOD.

 

[charvett]

Thanks for the reply.

It wasn't a typo, I'm planning to take a JBOD enclosure and use the RAID functionality of the PERC 6 to create a single virtual drive. In my case I plan to use a simple RAID 0 container since it's a backup device and high availability isn't a requirement.

Am I thinking about this wrong?

My main concern is the compatibility of a Dell proprietary card with non Dell storage. My intuition is that it should work, but I'd feel better ordering an enclosure if someone out there had experience doing something similar.

Thanks again.

 

[charvett]

Thought I would write a quick reply since it may be helpful to others.

My requirements were as follows:

1. Needed to backup a Dell server that had lots of fast external storage connected via a PERC 6/e
2. Needed it to be cheap
3. Needed it to be faster than a NAS to meet my overall backup time requirements
4. Needs a small 1U footprint in the rack

What I purchased:

1. Enhance TeraStor Rackmount Storage R4 Series R4 ML
2. 4 X Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 1.5-TB Hard Drive
3. Rackmount Kit
4. SFF8470 to SFF8470 SAS Screw-Type Cable

I attached the Enhance R4 ML to the PERC 6/e installed in an R710. The PERC card recognized the enclosure and I was able to create the RAID array. It worked exactly like I had hoped. The rail kit feels cheap and the enclosure lacks any type of redundancy, but it met my requirement of being cheap. I configure mine as RAID 0, because this backup serves as the onsite D2D device. I copy the backups from this enclosure to another removable storage device for offsite.

For about $1500 I was able to create about 6TB of relatively fast backup storage.

Hope this helps someone else looking to accomplish the same.