How to use a SAS Expander

Question

I would like to hookup my mother board to the backplane. Th backplane requires 5 minSAS connectors, for a total of 20 hard disks. My motherboard only supports 2 miniSAS connectors, for a total of 8 hard disks. Can anyone recommand a VMware approved solution for this?

Answer 1

You're not fully explaining what you wish to do. In this case, I would use a dedicated SAS HBA to connect to your external chassis. An example would be something like the LSI 9200 or 9205 controllers. I'd leave the motherboard slots alone. How many drives are you trying to address?

Are SURE that your enclosure has minisas connectors? Most enclosures will have SFF-8088 4-lane connectors.