I've doing some researches since few days and I haven't really got an answer to my question.
I am in the process of building a huge file server for the company I work for. We bought a server case NORCO RPC-4224 4U rackmount server case with 24 bays and drives. Now I am stuck at the point where I have to choose the RAID card. I saw a RAID card from LSI that offer 6 internals mini-SAS 8087 ports (6×4) and would work perfectly with my build. However, it's not cheap.
I have been reading about the subject and I found something called SAS Expander. They are cheap. HP is selling an expander card with 6 mini SAS 8087 for 225$ (instead of 1150$ of the other one).
Now my question, how would I link an SAS Expander with a RAID card ? Do I need to a buy a RAID card with only 1 external 8088 port and link it with the other card ? Could someone clarify this for me because I haven't found any good documentation on it.
Thanks you.
Best Answer
There's a lot of good information here about the HP SAS Expander.
Question that may help you are:
Do SAS expanders work transparently with SAS controllers?
How exactly does a SAS SFF-8087 breakout cable work? + RAID/connection questions
But in general, yes, you can use the HP SAS expander to link one controller to more disks than 2 SFF-8087 ports would natively provide. This, of course, only applies to internal SAS disks.
For the enclosure you linked, there are 6 SFF-8087 ports and no oversubscription. A SAS expander will be needed.
The definitive resource for the HP expander card you're interested in is here.