I am researching making a DIY SAS array much like the Dell MD1000. My understanding is that these devices do not contain a RAID controller, instead they present all the drives on in SAS domain to the host.
I would like to build the same type of array. The MD1000 and all similar devices contain built-in SAS expanders in order to present more than 4 drives to the host via a single cable.
My question is, what SAS expanders are they using? The only expanders I can find are PCI cards, which must be attached to a motherboard. Will my JBOD array require a motherboard, or are there stand-alone (i.e. dumb) SAS expanders that function independently of a motherboard?
Answer
I do not know about the MD1000, but probably they will be using some custom-made PCBs to have an expander run without a mainboard.
The SAS expanders usually will need the mainboard / PCIe slot for power supply only, so theoretically, you could use any mainboard, even without a CPU. There is this rather well documented DIY-JBOD project where an industrial PCIe PCMIG backplane (originally used for slotting SBCs but obviously providing power to any PCIe card) has been used instead of a full board:
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