• Storage & Archiving

  miniSAS to eSATA not port multiplier

  Posted by Neil Sadwelkar on July 18, 2012 at 2:24 pm

  This has been dealt with here many moons ago but slightly differently to my query. So here goes…

  Does a miniSAS to eSATA cable work with the Atto H680 SAS HBA, if connected to single drives?
  Not port multiplier RAIDs.

  The reason is not to save some money, but to save on slots. Here’s why…

  Have MacPro for Arri Alexa RAW data management work.
  Atto H680 installed to interface with the Codex to ‘download’ RAW files to disk.
  Disks are G-Tech and (soon to be) Maxx RAIDs.
  eSATA card installed for RAIDs

  Blackmagic HD Extreme card installed to enable video out for basic dailies work with Resolve.

  nVidia GT120 installed to enable GUI.

  Plan to soon add a nVidia Quadro 4000 card as GPU.

  So, in 4 slots I have Atto H680, BM Extreme, nVidia GT120, and eSATA cards.
  With the nVidia 4000 added one card will have to go. I can lose the eSATA card.

  I can buy SAS RAIDs from here on, so I don’t need eSATA.

  But, I’d like to also do a backup to bare (or enclosed) single eSATA drives.

  So, can I connect these to the Atto via miniSAS to eSATA?
  To push it further, how many drives can I connect simultaneously?

  ———————————–
  Neil Sadwelkar
  neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
  twitter: fcpguru
  FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
  Mumbai India

  Yi Zhang replied 13 years, 3 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  Bob Zelin

  July 18, 2012 at 10:57 pm

  https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/EXTMS4S1M/?utm_source=nextag&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=productads

  I have no idea if this works, but here is the cable from Other World Computing. You should try it. I guess you can setup the array as a JBOD, and not as a RAID. Again, I have never tried this.

  Bob Zelin
• 

  Alex Gerulaitis

  July 18, 2012 at 11:26 pm

  [Neil Sadwelkar] “So, can I connect these to the Atto via miniSAS to eSATA?”

  Yes. Other than cable length and transfer speed limitations due to additional circuits between the HBA and the drive, there is no difference for the SAS HBA between a SATA drive attached to a backplane, vs. that same drive attached via a SAS-to-eSATA cable.

  Disclaimer: I haven’t tried exactly that scenario, only a similar internal setup: Multi-lane internal SAS (SFF-8087) to SATA fan cable.

  [Neil Sadwelkar] “To push it further, how many drives can I connect simultaneously?”

  As many as there are lanes. With ATTO H680 – eight.

  Alex Gerulaitis
  Systems Integrator
  DV411 – Los Angeles, CA
• 

  Alex Gerulaitis

  July 18, 2012 at 11:29 pm

  [Bob Zelin] “I have no idea if this works, but here is the cable from Other World Computing.”

  I think these are SATA, not eSATA.

  Neil probably needs something like this (link).

  Alex Gerulaitis
  Systems Integrator
  DV411 – Los Angeles, CA
• 

  Andrew Richards

  July 20, 2012 at 7:45 pm

  [Neil Sadwelkar] “Does a miniSAS to eSATA cable work with the Atto H680 SAS HBA, if connected to single drives? Not port multiplier RAIDs.”

  Yes. eSATA is just a plug form factor and the H680 supports SATA devices (as any proper SAS HBA should). If you can find a SFF-8088 to eSATA x4 fanout cable, it’ll work. You can drive up to 8 eSATA devices that way across the H680’s two ports.

  Best,
  Andy

  EDIT: if I had read Alex’s post prior to posting, I could have avoided the duplicate post.
• 

  Neil Sadwelkar

  August 13, 2012 at 7:04 pm

  I did get the cable, this one…
  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JQ51CM/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2C_SC_3p_dp_1

  which is a
  HighPoint External Mini-SAS to Esata (SFF8088 to eSATA), 1M (3-Feet) Ext-MS-1MES

  And connected a G-Tech G-RAID (2-drive 4TB RAID0) which mounted fine. But the G-Speed eS which is a 4 drive RAID did not mount at all. Guess its because this cable does not support port multiplier.

  ———————————–
  Neil Sadwelkar
  neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
  twitter: fcpguru
  FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
  Mumbai India
• 

  Alex Gerulaitis

  August 13, 2012 at 7:18 pm

  [Neil Sadwelkar] “And connected a G-Tech G-RAID (2-drive 4TB RAID0) which mounted fine. But the G-Speed eS which is a 4 drive RAID did not mount at all. Guess its because this cable does not support port multiplier.”

  I don’t think it’s about the cable.

  SAS controllers (including ATTO H680) don’t support port-multiplied SATA devices, and G-Speed eS is one. Generally a controller would see device 0, the first out of several drives in a port-multiplied SATA box.

  To drive G-Speed eS, you would need an eSATA controller that supports port-multiplied devices.

  Or, you could move the drives out of the G-Speed eS to the right SAS enclosure.

  G-RAID may have mounted either because it’s not port-multiplied, or because seeing just the first drive is enough to mount it.

  Alex Gerulaitis
  Systems Integrator
  DV411 – Los Angeles, CA
• 

  Yi Zhang

  May 20, 2013 at 2:22 am

  Hi,

  I’m try to attach a Lacie 4TB external drive to the Dell SAS 6gpbs 2-port card. I have a mini-SAS to eSATA fanout cable. However, the drive failed to show up in this Dell server. OS is Windows 2012. Anything special I need to do? Thanks much!

  Yi

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up