ExpressSAS R60F and HP LTO 5

[Tom.Wong]

I know ATTO has the best compatibility with HP LTO's, and HP LTO's are best with mac. I'm planning to buy a pci express expansion backplane and house it in a server case so I can have a 8 bay raid 6, along with pci expansion, and I want to throw a internal hp lto 5 in there. Does anybody know if the for mention atto card will let me do what i want? raid 8 drives together, and have lto 5 connection? I'm trying to minimize external components and keeping things as concise as possible. I want this chassis to go with my DIT cart, and interchange with my edit suite at home for a fast raid, and hook into for da vinci resolve. I'm looking to put all this together in the next few months, any advice would help.

 

[Stephen Lovett]

Hi Tom,

The BRU folks could answer your question for certain, but I can get you 95% there.

Yes the Atto Raid controllers have a pass through method that allows the use of one of the connectors as a standard hba allowing you to connect to a HP LTO drive.

I set up a rig like this a while back for a client, and it worked fine. That said it was on a card that had an external port, so the standard cabling would work.

Unfortunately ATTO doesn't make a card that has enough external ports to do this easily.

(I've talked to them about this dozens of times at trade shows and through the BRU folks, and the sales people get it but so far they haven't moved on making what I/we want, namely 4 ports, 1 internal and 3 external for internal raid, external direct attached, and a pass through for an LTO or e-sata fan out cable, or even a 4 port external)

So for this to work, you have to get cables that will connect to the internal connector and have an external male pin. And you'll have to find a way to route them out of the case.

Not ideal but it should work.

I have not personally tested for performance impact etc. for using an LTO while a fast direct attached storage is in place. It shouldn't be an issue given the LTO's are limited by network speed etc. to about 100 MB/s which isn't that much for a x6 card, but that just theory.

The BRU guys sell all this stuff and would be the most likely source for accurate answers to your questions.

Hope this helps,

Steve

 

[Chris Ratledge]

I know ATTO has the best compatibility with HP LTO's, and HP LTO's are best with mac. I'm planning to buy a pci express expansion backplane and house it in a server case so I can have a 8 bay raid 6, along with pci expansion, and I want to throw a internal hp lto 5 in there. Does anybody know if the for mention atto card will let me do what i want?

Not positive but I think Dusty has a setup like this on his cart, maybe he'll chime in.

http://reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=658572&postcount=113

 

[Tom.Wong]

the intent was to have everything internal. the r60f would be controller a internal 8 bay raid 6, and a internal lto 5. I'll email the bru guys to double check, if the compatibility is there, I think I'm in business. My goal is to have as much all in one solutions as possible. I was gonna the hackintosh route, (i could have done a all in one tower) but asking several people on the forums including Dusty, it would probably be a bad idea. one thing malfunctions and i'm dead in the water. No precedents, nobody else with the same problems I can look up and ask for help if I can't figure it out. So I think this is getting closer to what I want right now.

 

[Stephen Lovett]

Hi Tom,

Sounds like a good plan.

Here is a shot of an internal raid I built a couple of versions back. It's sure handy for portability. I have more call for the LTO in the office so I chose to keep that external.

The eight drives up front were a raid 6, and then three more in a raid five in the main case.

Ultimately I chose to return to direct attached enclosures for cost and performance reasons, but it does mean my cart isn't as elegant and takes a few more minutes to set up if I need to add the tape drive etc.

Good call on avoiding the hackintosh route, I've built a couple and never found them to be 100% reliable, and it's just one more complicating factor if there is an issue on set.

... and there is always an issue on set

Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Best,

Steve

 

[Dustin Cross]

Tom,

I could not get the R60F to work with my PCIe expander. Cyclone is working with ATTO on a solution. I had to get the R30F. Not sure which expander you are planning, but be prepared for a little trial and error to get everything worki g.

 

[Tom.Wong]

i was thinking the cyclone since they sell just the back planes so i can put my own housing around it. the r30f works too, i just wanted to future proof it for 6 gb connection, and can just assume it's a faster card too. do you have it hooked up a internal lto?

 

[Tom.Wong]

Hi Tom,

Sounds like a good plan.

Here is a shot of an internal raid I built a couple of versions back. It's sure handy for portability. I have more call for the LTO in the office so I chose to keep that external.

The eight drives up front were a raid 6, and then three more in a raid five in the main case.

Ultimately I chose to return to direct attached enclosures for cost and performance reasons, but it does mean my cart isn't as elegant and takes a few more minutes to set up if I need to add the tape drive etc.

Good call on avoiding the hackintosh route, I've built a couple and never found them to be 100% reliable, and it's just one more complicating factor if there is an issue on set.

... and there is always an issue on set

Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

Best,

Steve

thanks for the advice Steve, yeh i'm trying to avoid having so many cases, so many things to lug around. mobility (as much as I can get) is important to me, and i basically wanna squeeze your set up down to 2 towers i have to lug around. Super micro makes a fantastic server case that has a hot swap 8 bay front, and i can put the pci expander back plane inside. I'll be controller the internal raid, internal lto, have rocket, i/o card and whatever else. and just hook it into my mac pro. then i can internchange it with my future resolve system at home and my field tower. it will act as a all in one fast raid, rocket acceleration, and anything else I need.