Was looking at picking up one of these chassis’ from Silverstone https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/server-nas/RM21-308/
for a VM host/NAS (proxmox and Truenas), and it looks like the backplane utilizes 2 Mini-SAS (SFF8087) connectors, one for each set of 4 drives. Silverstone recommends buying an HBA and cable from them to adapt to Mini-SAS HD (SFF8643) and utilize a PCIe slot.
I had originally planned on running without a backplane and using individual SATA cables, since the motherboard I’m using (Asrock IMB-x1314) has 8 sata ports built in.
I have seen the existence of cables going from SFF8087 to 4xSATA, would it be logical to get two of those and utilize the motherboard sata ports? or go with the HBA and cables to that?
My current train of thought is I have seen a lot of issues with HBA’s and with cables, and to minimize risk the fewer devices involved the better, as well as avoid passthrough issues with Proxmox/Truenas, and keep an open PCIe slot for other fun activities, skip the HBA and just go from the backplane to the motherboard. (Also, the less I have to spend the better.
However, This will be baby’s first backplane, and I’m not entirely certain the pitfalls and limitations included. if there’s a reason to not go this route, or issues to consider I would love to hear them.
[quote=“Jojo314, post:1, topic:206382”]
I have seen the existence of cables going from SFF8087 to 4xSATA, would it be logical to get two of those and utilize the motherboard sata ports? [/quote]
Technically you need reverse breakout cables for that. I have no idea what’s different about them, but they exist and are recommended for doing what you’re asking about. In reality you can probably get away with simple normal breakout cables though.
if you are virtualizing TrueNAS you will need an HBA. those 8 ports appear to be provided by part of the core and would not be available to passthrough to the VM.
IMO always HBA, onboard SATA is a PITA to get working with backplanes.
Cabling on an HBA is much simpler. I would always suggest a last generation LSI/Broadcom SAS HBA as they enjoy the widest support and are everywhere on ebay over buying a new SATA HBA.
it seems as much as I may prefer simplicity that the HBA is the way to go. I looked on ebay for LSI, and there is a lot of different models, is there anything in particular to look for? aside from having two SAS ports
EDIT:
looks like an LSI 9211-8i is a good fit, going to order one and see how it goes.