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I know infiniband uses largely the same cables as the SAS connected hard drive bays (JBODs), and infiniband has switches for its own purposes. I know also that SAS connected units have the capacity for daisy chaining to allow up to 1024 hard drives to be connected to a single controller port.
- Does something like a switch exist that effectively multiplexes a controller port out to a large number of SAS connected external enclosures?
- Is there a common name for such a device?
- Is there a technological reason why such a device could not exist?
J Collins
Posted 2019-02-28T10:47:22.363
Reputation: 412
1You're looking for a device like a SAS expander. SAS and Infiniband are pretty different so it's not accurate to claim they're doing the same thing. – Seth – 2019-02-28T11:08:25.610
SAS expander sounds like the right type of unit, but from what I've seen they are implemented as daisy chain units in hard drive enclosure themselves. I'm wondering if there's a dedicated unit that multiplexes and is the central connection point of many enclosures. It would look a look a lot like a switch with an uplink and seems like it might have a similar behaviour. – J Collins – 2019-03-01T13:19:28.947
@Mokubai I don't see how this is a shopping recommendation that will become obsolete quickly. If such a device exists then is will exist forever; if it doesn't then there may be a good technological reason why. – J Collins – 2019-03-01T14:11:33.803
If you make it about specific cards etc. it would become obsolete quickly as the line up of vendors frequently changes. Mentioning that SAS Extenders exist works, mentioning the specific model of vendor X and asking which to buy doesn't. You can buy them as PCI-E cards. You would either use backplanes with a suitable connector or you would use a fan out/sideband cable depending on what you actually want to do.
– Seth – 2019-03-05T06:58:38.873