I have been working on configuring a box (will need 4 total of varying size) for some upgraded storage capacity for a VMWare VSphere Essentials 4.0 box running a few virtual boxes with applications, one of which is SQL based, but, none of which are too intensive. The box needs a lot of storage (up to 48TB). Some of the storage will be for adding space for active applications, but, most of it will be for backup storage from other boxes. In looking at the hardware, I was trying to stay Intel as much as possible (for warranty considerations). I was also trying to spread across as many drives as possible as seems to always be recommended. I find when you get to the chassis with 24+ drive bays, you also move into the need to either employ either a SAS/SATA Expander or another controller to get enough outputs to feed the backplanes/drives. Most of the chassis I have been looking at have a backplane using a mini-SAS (x4) to feed a row of 4 drives. So, on the cheap, it would appear to be easy to buy a controller and add expanders to feed up to the theoritcal maximum of the controller. However, it would seem logical that spreading that demand across multiple controllers would give you better performance (not to mention some potential hardware failure redundancy). So, I guess I am looking for some advice on controller configuration for Open-E when you get beyond 24 drives. In the same regard, I am looking for advice on the configuration as a whole. The big concern at this point is that the Intel RS2WG160 controller (based on the LSI 2108) is not yet in the Open-E supported hardware list (unless I am overlooking it). Is there another Intel SAS/SATA RAID controller card that anyone is using successfully? In the supported hardware list, there is no SAS and the SATA RAID cards are just generic. Intel has a recipe on their ESAA site for an Open-E box using a their SR2612UR server and an AXXROMBSASMR controller. So, I know that some of their controllers must work. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Box 1 (smaller; This box can't get to 48TB internally without going to 24x 2TB SATA drives and where there is some per)

1x Chenbro RM51924 (24-Bay 3.5)
1x Intel S5520HC Server Motherboard
1x Intel Xeon E5620 2.40 GHz Processor Quad-core
3x KVR1333D3D4R9S/4GI (12GB triple-channel mode)
1x Intel RS2WG160 SAS RAID Controller w/Intel AXXRSBBU7 RAID Controller Battery
21x Western Digital WD2003FYYS 2 TB RE4 SATA/300 (inexpensive storage)
3x 15K.7 ST3600057SS 600 GB (more performance for the application allocated space)
1x Open-E DSS V6 16TB + Storage Extension +32TB + Annual Basic Support
(NOTE: Related to my opening question, the RS2WG160 gives me 4x Mini-SAS (x4) outputs and this Chenbro backplane needs 6x Mini-SAS inputs, so, I need to either add an Intel RES2SV240 SAS Expander, or another RS2WG160 controller to fill all the slots).

Box 2 (Bigger)
1x Chenbro RM91250 (50-Bay 3.5)
1x Chenbro RM51924 (24-Bay 3.5)
1x Intel S5520HC Server Motherboard
1x Intel Xeon E5620 2.40 GHz Processor Quad-core
3x KVR1333D3D4R9S/4GI (12GB triple-channel mode)
1x Intel RS2WG160 SAS RAID Controller w/Intel AXXRSBBU7 RAID Controller Battery
21x Western Digital WD2003FYYS 2 TB RE4 SATA/300 (inexpensive storage)
10x 15K.7 ST3600057SS 600 GB (more performance for the application allocated space)
1x Open-E DSS V6 32TB + Storage Extension +16TB + Annual Basic Support
(NOTE: Related to my opening question, the RS2WG160 gives me 4x Mini-SAS (x4) outputs and this Chenbro backplane needs 12x Mini-SAS inputs, so, I need to either add at least two Intel RES2SV240 SAS Expanders, or possibly up to three RS2WG160 controllers to fill 48 slots).

Thanks!