[kwlug-disc] OT: SAS cables/controller cards (and Fibrechannel?)

[Paul Nijjar]

This is pretty off-topic, but I will ask anyways. 

I am doing a small project with Computer Recycling to sort through a
large number of drive arrays they have received. I am running into
trouble because we are missing cables and controller cards for some of
this hardware. I am wondering whether any of you have spares (or old
stuff) around that I could borrow for a while (or maybe that we could
purchase). We have thought about purchasing cables ourselves, but
cables are not cheap, and we don't know whether this equipment is any
good.



I am not super-familiar with this world so I am probably saying stupid
things. Please forgive me and correct my misunderstandings. 

I am taking descriptions of ports here: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI#Connectors

I have an IBM SR-BR10i (maybe a rebranded LSI SAS 3082E-R) RAID
controller card which might work for testing the drive arrays. It has
two ports which I think take in SFF-8087 connectors.  I do not know
for certain whether this card works and I do not know whether it is
sufficient to connect and test these drive arrays.



I have a Dell MD 1000 that I think takes in an SFF-8470 connector (the
Infiniband one from the Wikipedia page), but I do not have any cable
with that end.




I have some IBM drive arrays that I am hoping to test. Most of them are
IBM exn3000 (alternatively: 2857-NAS) that I believe have QSFP ports. 
We have some QSFP cables and I have one that I believe is SFF-8088 to
QSFP. But I do not think I can connect a SFF-8087 to a QSFP directly,
so I need an adaptor? I am not sure how this works. I do have one IBM
server that I have used to successfully detect the drive arrays, but
that is about as far as I can go, because the built-in RAID controller
is not well-supported by Linux any more. 

There are not good pictures of QSFP connectors, but here is the
wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QSFP





We also have some oldish IBM drive arrays that have Fibrechannel
connectors. I have no idea whether I can make these work, or what I
would need to do so (I think I need big expensive proprietary IBM
controller that I cannot use without expensive proprietary software I
don't have). Maybe I can access those drives directly? They have
connectors that look like this: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_Channel_electrical_interface#40-pin_%22SCA-2%22_disk_connector

In particular, here is somebody selling one of the models in the array
for some money: 

http://www.harddrivesdirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=456786_73P8017




Anyways, if you have some of the cables/adaptors/cards/etc that I
would need to test this equipment then please get in touch. If you
know in particular what I should be looking to get in order to test it
that would be helpful too. Our goal is to evaluate some of this stuff
for internal use, but if for some reason you want to purchase it from
Computer Recycling (especially the Fibrechannel stuff) then we may be
able to make arrangements. In the worst case we will give up, strip
what we can and then e-waste the rest.

- Paul