[OpenIndiana-discuss] Garrett D'Amore on using SATA drives in a SASsystem

[Richard Elling]

On Jun 26, 2012, at 6:29 AM, Dan Swartzendruber wrote:

> Keep in mind this is almost 2 yrs old, though.  I seem to recall a thread
> here or there that has pinned the SATA toxicity issues to an mpt driver bug
> or somesuch?

Not really. Search for other OSes and their tales of woe. In some cases, a
bad SATA drive can make the machine fail at POST, well before an OS is 
loaded.

Best results for SATA is direct-connect: no expanders, no extenders.
Next best is SATA with a good-quality SATA/SAS interposer.
Known to be a poor mix: both SATA and SAS devices sharing an expander.

NB, we have seen changes in HBA, expander, and disk firmware all contribute
to happiness or sadness when SATA devices are used in SAS fabrics (STP).
At one time, we tried to keep a list of combinations known for happiness, but
maintaining that list proved to be impractical, due to the constant churn and
unavailability of disk firmware patches from various vendors. Also, do not assume
that you will be able to get a firmware upgrade, even if it exists :-(
 -- richard

-- 

ZFS storage and performance consulting at http://www.RichardElling.com