Newbie! trying to get my DL 380 G6 to recognize my 24 port Raid controller

[menglor]

Good day!

I am a hobbyist trying to make some hardware I have work,  not sure what I am doing wrong at this point.

I have a “HP Proliant DL380 G6”  configured for Windows 2k8 R2

It has 1TB in storage on 6 2.5 SAS drives. (internal) 

I recently purchased the following 2 items.

 1 – “HP 24 Port PCI-E 3Gb SAS Standard Profile Expander Raid Card 487738-001 + 4XCord”   (AKA  468406-B21  ??)

      Ebay Auction 161696131154  

2 – “4U Supermicro Superchassis SC846E1-R900B 24 Bay SAS SATA Chassis JBOD Server”

      Ebay Auction 131931786169

• I have installed the card, into the server, and to my knowledge, Windows 2008 is not detecting it.
• I am not sure I have even installed it correctly.
• I have 3 cables connected from the Card to the JBOD  
• 1 SATA 3 TB inside the JBOD case. 

Basically, my end game would be to have the  Proliant Server connected to the JBOD case and be able to have 24  2-3TB hard drives each.

If I had to buy a new controller card, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Can anyone help me?

[Torsten.]

468406-B21 is not a controller but a SAS expander, thst "split" the connection to a bunch of cables. it can be used "behind" a smart array controller.Your DL380 should have one built-in - the P410i.

But this controller is for internal use only. The sas expander too, but with an external connector for a tape.

You probably need another controller with external connectors. google for "DL380 g6 quickspec" for details.

[menglor]

so I will add more to what I have done :)

Currently the DL 380 has a pretty  2" hole with edge protects with the 4 cables from the CARD fished through the JBOD.

The JBOD has a similar hole in the bottom of the case so the cables are basically "internal" 

I am going to take some pictures tonight to show how I did thigns :)

I guess my first question is, do I need to plug the "468406-B21" into the p4101? is it it enough that its in the expansion slot?

[Torsten.]

Connect the ports on the system board to 8C and 9C of the SAS expander, then beginning with 2C to the disks.

[menglor]

Ok kool.  I will try that tonight.

ok, so I am going to assume that the DL380 already has cables off the MB to the 6 drives that are currently running the OS

and that disconnecting them and putting them into the expander means I will loose those drives.

I have to ask the following question

1 - is there a way I can use the on board drives AND the ones in the JOBD?  without adding a new card? 

2 - if I have to get a Second RAID card so I use the extender.  Can you recomend a card that will compliment or at the very least, not conflict with the onboard one?

I havent made any decisions yet, just weighing in my options!

Oh and Thanks TONS!!!!!

[Torsten.]

how many connections do you need for the JBOD?

[menglor]

ok, so I am eembeding a link to the photos I took,  I am worried its too much space.

So, it looks like the DL380 uses 2 cables for the 6 drives in the front.

- The Jbod looks like it only uses 3 mini SaS to get  control the 24 drives, (which honestly, that just seems wrong!, but there are only 3 connector (see pictures.

- the drives on the DL380 needs 2.

And the Expander card has 9 connections.

Logically, I am assuming, I should 

1 - Plug the DL380 in C8 and c9

2 - plug the DL380 drive tray into C2 and C3

3 - Plug the JBOD drive tray into  C4, C5 and C6

Am I on the right track? it seems logical.

https://goo.gl/photos/MHmaPgmh3DvivQLC7

please let me know if you dont understand which picture is what.

if my thinking is correct,  I am going to need 8 x 2M cables.

ugh.

[Jimmy Vance]

I did a quuick Google search on your “4U Supermicro Superchassis SC846E1-R900B 24 Bay SAS SATA Chassis JBOD Server” and found this thread. From from what I can tell from comments in the thread, the chassis already has an expander in it and just needs to be conencted to a RAID controller https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/24-bay-supermicro-server-limits.27833/

[Torsten.]

I found this, maybe it helps:

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/chassis/tower/SC846.pdf

I guess you need only 2 cables to the chassis, this means you disconnect the server internal cables from the backplane, connect them to the SAS expander and connect a new pair of cables between the SAS expander and the server disk backplane. Then connect 2 cables betwen the SAS expander and the disk chassis.

[menglor]

Ok, so wow, much to think about this morning.

And before I start, I have to re-iterate how Appreciative I am of all this help.  I am geeking out on all the learning I am doing.

So, SAS846EL1 is the card behind the drives in the JBOD is an expander.  (did not know that)

Owner’s manual for the Expander behind the Jbod drives:

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS-846EL.pdf

I believe this MAY now gives me a few options that I didn’t know I had.

So to keep things simple, if I can ask this question:

Question 1:
Knowing I have a DL 380 G6, and this JBOD server.  Can I wire this up without using the 487738-001 (expander card?)
According to page 3-1 from the above PDF.  It has 3 connectors available to be used.

J0 = From HBA or higher backplane
J1
     =  To lower backplane in cascaded system
J2

I assume, I would plug the J1 and J2 into the drive array in the DL380 (not  too sure of the order of the cables yet)
Then, I would plug J0 into the controller on the DL 380’s Motherboard.   But since it also has 2 connectors,  how do I know which one?