Question re: Atto R680

[paul engstrom]

I'm trying to manage slots in the MacPro...

Can an Atto R680 do the following:

Function as a RAID card, controlling a JBOD (raided) with Caviar Black SATA drives (requiring one mini-SAS connection)

while also either (i.e. at the same time its running the RAID):
using mini-SAS - esata fan out cable to connect to an esata RED station + shuttle drive

or:
using mini-SAS cable to connect to/use HP LTO4

Thanks for feedback.

Regards,
P

[Jeff Kilgroe]

You can run eSATA fan-out from the card to eSATA devices (RED Station, etc..) and also run JBOD to drives on the other channels. Not a problem. I'm assuming you're thinking of setting them up as JBOD so you can then just do a software RAID.

The setup is not ideal, but does work. You would save yourself some money by using the ATTO H680, if you don't need the onboard RAID controller. If you do put the card into RAID mode, you will be limited on which eSATA devices you can connect while in RAID mode and how you go about connecting. It becomes a problem. Best solution is H680, or even the H6F0 for more external connectivity, and then connect a SAS enclosure that has onboard hardware RAID. Let the external RAID box run itself. Allows for a cheaper host adapter and keeps you free to connect eSATA, SAS LTO, etc.. to the same card.

The Caviar Black drives work well in RAIDs. The Black-X w/64MB cache are excellent and the RE4 editions are better tuned for RAID-5/6 performance. I'm having very good luck with these drives in both 1TB and 2TB capacities. I have over 30 of the 2TB RE4 units in service and have yet to have one die on me <knock wood>.

[paul engstrom]

thanks Jeff,

Had intended to use the R680 to RAID the drives/enclosure and then still use the card for esata i/o. Sounds like that won't work... I think running an internal software RAID in the tower and then using the drives/enclosure as a JBOD for the time being may work for us. We're in one of those spots where we're trying to avoid spending money on certain things right now because we know new MacPros with more slots and also thunderbolt is coming...

We already started employing Caviar Black based on feedback from you -- been very happy with them, thanks!