Scaleable Storage

[borsaid]

Hello everyone! I'm very interested in what your product can do, as my organization is currently investigating upgrading our storage infrastructure. I'm new to iSCSI SAN solutions and had (hopefully!) a quick & easy question.

I'm going to be building a proof-of-concept box, probably something along the lines of a 3U Supermicro barebone. Exact specifications have yet to be determined. My primary concern is if we start with this type of unit, and theoretically max out it's storage capacity, what are our options to add more storage to this target? I was under the impression that we could get some type of DAS rackmount device and attach it to the Supermicro. Is this possible? Can someone give some examples of types of equipment that would be needed to accomplish this?

[asaph07]

Hi Borsaid.

You can use an Areca 1680 RAID controller; just use the external port to expand out of your 2U system. This configuration works quite well.

-Asaph

[borsaid]

I see where you're going there. What kind of enclosure or unit would I be hooking up into using that Areca card? Is it expandable beyond that, like in a piggy-backing setup?

[asaph07]

Borsaid -

We use the Areca expander in our system. But, what you can do is check with Areca to see what other expanders they support. In our experience they typically support most of the SAS/SATA Expanders.

-Asaph

[borsaid]

and what kind of disk enclosures should I be looking at? I seem to have a hard time finding these.

[asaph07]

Borsaid,

...just go to the Areca website. You should be able to find what you're looking for there.

-Asaph