Question 1

Can this be used with standard eSATA ports to configure a linux software RAID or does it require the bundled card to operate?

Accepted Answer

It does not require the bundled card, but it does require an eSATA port that supports port-multiplying. I had a lot of trouble with the bundled card, so I replaced it with a cheap Rosewill RC-219. I am currently using this enclosure for linux software RAID 10 with good results.

Question 2

Can FreeNas 9 be installed on this? I am planning to use this with PLEX.

Accepted Answer

As Paul said above, this is just an enclosure, so you wont be installing anything on this hardware itself. Using linux software RAID, I am serving files to my network with SMB. My Plex server (which happens to be a separate machine for me) includes files in its library from a number of different storage locations, one of which is that SMB share across the network. Once I got rid of the included RAID card, and started using linux software RAID, I have had no problems with this enclosure. Read speeds across the network are plenty fast for serving files through Plex.

Question 3

Has anyone successfully expanded the RAID volume with new drives?  I wasn't sure if this is a software thing, or if the hardware does this automatically if you pop in a new drive.

Accepted Answer

I had issues with this enclosure at first also but after a couple of days of reading/fiddling I got it figured out.  I have two of these populated with sixteen HGST 4TB storage drives and aside from the initial setup being finicky I have had zero issues.

You get what you pay for with this unit. It's been my experience that when you buy the absolutely cheapest solution you can find you should expect to do a bit of extra work.  If you or a friend don't have a bit of tech experience spend a few extra bucks and buy something already built.

Question 4

What actual throughput are you getting in these drives? I tried various configurations and I get sustained speeds around 45MB for RAID5 write (across 4x 4T drives) and 70 MG/sec read. This is far less than I expected. Even with very fast SSD drives and striping (RAID 0) I max out around 120 MB/sec. 
Is this expected performance?

Accepted Answer

Gene, we've had this box installed for about a year and it's worked well.  But I don;t know the exact throughput.  Let me know if there is a simple way to test throughput and I'll let you know.

Question 5

does this product come with a rr622 card?

Accepted Answer

It did,  but in about 3 months it started failing. I am not sure what is the problem and i think it might be heating (thought I made sure it's well ventilated). So as of now out of 8 drive in thie enclosure, I only have one that is seen by the bios, so I know it's not a windows issue.

Question 6

Will this chassis accept 4TB drives?

Accepted Answer

It says in the specifications on Newegg that the maximum capacity is 32TB. There's only one way to do that with 8 bays.
So the answer to your question would be "yes"
I have 2TB disks in there and they work fine (5 in Raid 6, and 3 stand alone). Customer support is quite good as well.

Question 7

To those of you who had to replace the fan: Mine has now died. What fan did you replace it with? Will any 2-pin 120mm fan work?

Accepted Answer

I just had to replace my fan.  I went through SanDigital, expensive with shipping it was $30.  I tried a different fan but it would not spin.

Question 8

Can this chassis be bought without the card...?  I have the RR 2720SGL and I'd like to use it b/c it does RAID 6 on data arrays.  Ill run the cables inside a slot in the back of my PC...

Accepted Answer

This enclosure comes with the card.  You dont have to use the shipped card - you can use any other compatible card.  And their website lists other 8-bay drives without the included card.

Note however that Sans Digital only tests with a limited set of raid cards - likely the one that it ships with (that is the answer I received from their tech support when i asked about alternate cards).
I know others have used the enclosure with other compatible cards without issues.

Question 9

A couple Qs.

- Is there a better HBA than the rocket raid?  I have a 622 on another PC and have had issues.
- Can any drive be used - or do they have to be NAS drives?
- I would like to setup a 4-drive raid5+hot.  Then in the future do the same thing again (using all 8 bays for two arrays).  Any issues with this?

Thanks!

Accepted Answer

I had issues with the 622 as well, but I was using this with a Linux Ubuntu 12.10 server.
Eventually after some tech support and research on my part, SansDigital sent out a comparable non-hardware RAID card 2ESPCIE2, which worked fine.
However, the unit still didn't work right and I had to send in the whole thing for replacement (bad powers supply or back plane??)

The manual calls for non-desktop class drives (I used the WD Red series 2TB drives with no issues)

Shouldn't be any issues with 4+1 config. I have a 5+1 Raid 6 config with two standalone disks and its been running well on a 24x7 linux server for about 6 months with not even a hiccup

Question 10

Can I start with 2-3 4TB hard drives and gradually add more hard drives afterwards without reformatting the whole package? (like drobo)

Accepted Answer

yes. i managed to do this... though to be honest i thought i failed when i tried it but when i re-setup things my data was still there and i had the 4th drive in. i dont think i did it correctly since i did not let it reconfigure the drives when testing it (takes 24 hours plus to do some things when working with 12tb). it is advertised that you can do that with the software/raid controller. Still when trying this you want to be working with data you could be ok with losing, also faith in a higher power can be of help :D

i was planning to expand from 4 to 8 drives...but i think i will just split it into 2 large pools of 4 drives each and be happy

Questions & Answers