Turning an external SAS array into a NAS cheaply

I have a 10 bay JMR SilverStor for which I paid nearly nothing. I want to use it as back up storage, ideally as a NAS. I’m a bit new to this and I’ve figured I’m missing a SAS host bus adaptor for the enclosure but then am struggling. I don’t currently have a PC with a PCI-e slot to plug it into.

Ideally I don’t want to double the power consumption of this venture, nor do I want to spend a fortune/buy a whole other PC just to run it. I do have some Raspberry Pi doing nothing. Or an old Mac Mini (USB and Firewire only)

Any ideas? Many thanks.

The NAS Expander connects to another NAS (or 2) via an external RAID Card. Fairly certain it isn’t possible to use it standalone; It needs another computer to control the drives it manages

Edit:

Ok it pre-dates thunderbolt. Needs a special host card, and host cable.

More info here:

You’ve got basically a useless chassis, IMHO

I wouldn’t say useless necessarily, you would need to control it via another computer though

It doesn’t have a traditional SAS connection for another computer to connect with. It’s also missing the HBA it originally shipped with.

Maybe two options.

  1. Find a SAS port expander card that will convert SFF-8088 to whatever internal connections you need for the backplane.

  2. There’s likely enough room in there for an ITX motherboard and SAS HBA. Then it could be made into a self contained NAS.

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Thank you. For some reason, I couldn’t even find its specs. Good find!

Both good ideas. I hadn’t thought about getting an ITX motherboard into it: or indeed the fact that it doesn’t need to do any heavy lifting so any old celeron etc. would do.

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Good luck with the project. That’s a nice looking case.

Any updates? Curious if you got this converted to a nas?

With a motherboard and an sas controller, you should be able to build a very nice nas on the cheap if the backplane works. :smiley:

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sees title

Oh

Spend 5 bucks on a core duo machine.