Yes, the extensive command set of the SCSI is a big bonus of using it over SATA. from SAS’ Wiki: SATA uses a command set that is based on the parallel ATA command set and then extended beyond that set to include features like native command queuing, hot-plugging, and TRIM. SAS uses the SCSI command … Read more
Based on your problem description your issue isn’t so much the server as the storage. You want a reliable, robust filesystem like ZFS that’s designed to handle large storage capacity well, and has built-in management capabilities to make that end of the system easier to manage. As was mentioned in the comments, I’d go with … Read more
A few items to help clarify SAS technology… SATA drives can connect to SAS ports. SAS drives cannot connect to SATA ports. Server-class hardware typically uses an embedded RAID controller or a separate RAID controller PCIe device. Most RAID controllers and SAS HBAs will use SAS connections (multilane or 4-lane SAS ports). Internally, these systems … Read more
Such device finally exist CXRT SAS to USB adapter CXRT-USB3. You can find it on Amazon, eBay and couple other places. There are 2 downsides in my opinion. It’s almost 100 times more expensive than cheap SATA to USB, around 700$. And it supports only SAS, not SATA so you may need to carry multiple … Read more
SAS is active. It is a Network. a 24 drive enclosure likely has 3 backplanes, each driving 8 drives, chained, and everyone of the them is ACTIVE. It has a full SAS Management chip. As such, it has a CPU, it has some RAM, it has Firmware on every of those backplanes. SuperMicro sells a … Read more
The idea with ZFS is to let it known as much as possible how the disks are behaving. Then, from worst to better: Hardware raid (ZFS has absolutely no clue about the real hardware), JBOD mode (The issue being more about any potential expander: less bandwidth), HBA mode being the ideal (ZFS knows everything about … Read more
SAS=SCSI=manageability, especially under load and also better prefailure diagnostics and tuning capability. Spendy and low capacity/£$€. SATA=value, capacity and adequate performance for many loads but be aware that 99%+ of SATA drives aren’t designed to work 24/7/365 under duress. Also putting them under busy server workloads can dramatically affect their MTBF. I’d recommend SATA for … Read more
I hate to say “don’t use SATA” in critical production environments, but I’ve seen this situation quite often. SATA drives are not generally meant for the duty cycle you describe, although you did spec drives specifically rated for 24×7 operation in your setup. My experience has been that SATA drives can fail in unpredictable ways, … Read more
This is going to be a function of your workload and the class of drive you purchase… In my server deployments, I have not had a properly-spec’d SSD fail. That’s across many different types of drives, applications and workloads. Remember, not all SSDs are the same!! So what does “properly-spec’d” mean? If your question is … Read more