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I have 4 SAS drives that used to be in a server that just died.

Is there any way to add a SAS controller to the Ras Pi so I can use it as a NAS?

ScottishTapWater
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  • A quick google reveals that USB to SAS adapters are readily available. I am not aware of a reason these will not work. – Mark Smith Apr 24 '19 at 14:51
  • At $700, I think not. https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Converter-Universal-Reader-External/dp/B07KZRCT8H. All of the SAS -> SATA connectors look sketchy to me because I'm fairly sure you still need a SAS controller to run them – ScottishTapWater Apr 24 '19 at 15:42

2 Answers2

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Before the Compute Module 4 came out, the answer was no; however, I'm currently testing an LSI SAS3082E-R SAS controller with the Compute Module 4 + IO Board, and I'm hopeful it will work. I'm planning on testing it with SATA drives, but assuming it and other SAS controllers work with the CM4 via it's PCIe bus, you could conceivably get SAS drives working with a Pi 4 now.

I don't, unfortunately, have any on hand to test with.

Edit: A few months later, and I have been able to get SAS drives working with the CM4 through a Broadcom MegaRAID card.

You can even use enterprise 'U.3' PCIe NVMe drives like the KIOXIA CM6 too, though those would be total overkill.

One complication is the drivers for the MegaRAID card that I used had to be patched with a custom patch made by the Broadcom engineers specifically for the Raspberry Pi. So far I haven't found another SAS card that works out of the box with a Pi (even with a custom compiled kernel), as the drivers are usually not tested or working with the Pi' SoC, which has some PCI Express bus peculiarities.

geerlingguy
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No. You will need an external device such as an enclosure to convert SAS to a port the Raspberry Pi has (USB). Such enclosures do not really exist and "SAS to SATA" cables are just cables you still need a SAS controller to read any drive connected to them.

Mr. T
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