The Areca ARC-4036 8-Bay SAS Tower JBOD Enclosurefrom Areca ARC-4036 8-Bay SAS Tower JBOD Enclosureprovides a compact external storage chassis capable of accommodating up to eight 6 Gbps Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) or Serial ATA (SATA) drives. The SAS expander module is based on the LSI 28-port LSISAS2x28 expander IC, SAS-2 chip which features 28 x 6 Gbps ports and 6G/3G multiplexing, SAS 2.0 zoning, self-configuration, table-to-table routing and an integrated PPC processor for SES-2 and enclosure management support.

The compact tower enclosure connects to the host system through two 4-lane SAS connectors (host in) and two 4-lane SAS connectors (exp. out) to the next SAS-to-SAS JBOD enclosure. It is used to enhance the ARC-8040 RAID Subsystem by allowing support for more than 8 internal hard disk drives. Configuration and environmental information are accessible either via in-band (SES-2 over SMP) or out-of-band serial port.

Supports up to 8x 6 Gbps SAS/SATA Drives    2x SAS Host In Connectors    2x SAS Expansion Out Connectors    6-Pin UART RJ-11 Connector    8x SAS Hard Drive Connectors    2x 2700 rpm/Brushless Fans

SAS 2.0 is designed for backwards compatibility with SAS 1.0 and delivers a data transfer rate of 6 Gbps per physical link. The SAS 2.0 interface supports both 6 Gbps SAS 2.0 disk drives for data-intensive applications and 6 Gbps SATA drives for low-cost bulk storage of reference data. Applications can be optimized for cost/performance through the use of both SAS and SATA drive types. The enclosure includes 8 internal and 16 external 6 Gbps SAS ports connection for host and easy expansion. High-performance architecture sets new boundaries of industry performance expectations - 6 Gbps SAS (600 MBps bandwidth per physical link) 3 Gbps SATA (300 MBps bandwidth per physical link).

The expander box contains an embedded expander manager that can access via in-band SES-2 over SMP protocol and out-of band RS-232 port. An out-of-band serial port is available for managing the configuration and monitoring the expander. The expander firmware and EPLD have implemented the SES-2 protocol and disk activity map to the individual fault/activity status indicator on the backplanes. Furthermore, it has implemented autonomous chassis management of power supply status connectors and two fan monitor/speed control connectors through the SES-2 protocol. In data center environments, identifying issues with drives and environments are crucial. The hardware monitor can check system voltage and temperature. The warning message will be shown in alarm buzzer and the respective LED.

Areca presents its high performance and high reliability 6 Gbps SAS expander module for a cost-effective and enterprise-class JBOD storage enclosure. A 6 Gbps SAS expander module literally expands the number of end devices that you can connect together. Expander devices, typically embedded into an expander module to connect system backplane, support large configurations of SAS end devices, including SAS host/RAID adapters and SAS and SATA disk drives. The SAS protocol defines a mechanism that has been implemented in the SAS expanders to guarantee fair access between drives in a domain. The enclosure is ideal for 6 Gbps SAS storage systems with external interfaces and provides the benefits of increased storage capacity. The type and total amount of drives you use are based on the host interface in the server that the JBOD is connected to. Host-based RAID configuration is supported via an external SAS/Fibre/iSCSI/PCIe 2.0 to 6 Gbps SAS RAID controllers, external series 6 Gbps SAS RAID and SAS host adapters.

Related Questions and Answers

Q: 1. Will this support a 2009 - 2012 Mac Pro (MacPro5,1) if it is running Linux?

A: The QNAP TL-D1600S 16-Bay JBOD Enclosure is compatible with MacOS, Windows, and Ubuntu. Compatibility with other Linux distributions is not guaranteed.

Q: 2. What is the Initial RAID Configuration? is it Pre-Format?

A: The manufacture doesn't specify it comes Pre-formatted with a particular RAID. This model supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk, and JBOD. You can format the enclosure with the RAID setting you like.

Q: 3. Will this unit work with the Areca 6 bay Raid?

A: No. According to product documentation, the ARC-4038Ml is an external solution with Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 host connectivity for use via direct attachment with your PC or Mac workstation via a ARC-1883x/1226-8x PCIe card (not included).

Q: 4. What speed drives does the "HighPoint RocketStor 6414S..." support?

A: So the HighPoint RocketStor 6414S supports, SAS 7200 rpm drives that have transfers at 226 MB/s, and also supports 2.5 sata SSD's with a transfer speeds around 500 MB/s.

Q: 5. Will this support a 2009 - 2012 Mac Pro (MacPro5,1) if it is running Linux?

A: The QNAP TL-D400S 4-Bay JBOD Enclosure is listed as compatible with Windows and Linux. Ubuntu compatibility is specified, but compatibility with other distributions is not mentioned.

Q: 6. How long is the Thunderbolt 3 cable that is provided?

A: It's 3'.

Q: 7. I have this same exact RocketStore unit .. mini sas connected to my win10 x64 PC .. it doesn't shutdown alone after i shutdown my PC !Any Advice ?

A: This is normal it has its own processor built in which regulates thermal conditions and healt of the drives. There is no wake-on or power off with MiniSas it has its own shutdown and boot up cycle. If you must power this down I would recommend doing so with the button in the rear after your computer has completely shut down. Then power on and make sure all the lights are good to go before powering on the computer.

Q: 8. What is the maximum capacity per drive?

A: Currently using four Seagate Barracuda 12TB HDD in RAID 5 with no issues.

Q: 9. What type of drives are in this JBOD? SAS-3 12Gb or SATA III 6Gb? Who is the drive manufacturer and what model?

A: The manufacturer only specifies that it is 8x 6GB drives. They do not specify the models used.

Q: 10. Does this work well directly connected to a desktop PC? What would the max read and write spreads be? Main pros over the tr-004

A: The QNAP TL-D400S 4-Bay JBOD Enclosure does not have a USB port to connect directly to a typical PC; it includes a SFF-8644 to SFF-8088 external cable to connect to an SFF-8088 port and is mainly designed as network-attached storage (NAS). Meanwhile, the QNAP TR-004 4-Bay USB 3.2 Gen 1 RAID Expansion Enclosure is primarily an expansion module for an existing NAS but can be used on its own as direct storage for a computer via USB-C.