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EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station
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Author:  serverlad [ Sun May 04, 2014 5:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Ruben Rocha wrote:
Unless you are willing to experiment on going beyond a 5 bay esata.
Then you need to use a usb device.
Which you have three ports left to add to.
So if you are sold on the sharkoon then I suggest.
Buy it and try.
It has a usb as well as a esata connection.
It appears it will work on usb as jbod.
I still would ask sharkoon for verification.
Since they don't list jbod but list large which should be the same.

FYI,
As long as you use whs v1 you still have a per drive limit of 2tb for pool drives and 3-4tb for non pool drives.
And the max of all the pool drives sum is like 31-32 TB as I recall.


Btw I set the Sharkoon 8-Bay to what they call “clean mode” for all the drives to be individually

Author:  Diehard [ Sun May 04, 2014 12:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Hmmm, I'm surprised you can see all 8 drives in the unit because they make a note :

2. To address more than one HDD in single mode via eSATA, the eSATA controller must support Port Multiplier. Normal eSATA controller with PM support up to 5 HDD's.

Also I noticed they only have 1 esata port. When I've seen 8 bay esata boxes in the past, they had 2 esata ports. 2x4=8

Author:  Comp1962 [ Sun May 04, 2014 10:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

In the notes at the bottom they acknowledge the 5 drives via eSATA which we are all familiar with: http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/2217

I think to use the fully 8 drives you will be forced to running their software to build a RAID Array so that to the device its connected to will only see that as 1 big drive. It also looks like a CFI Built Unit like those being sold by Sans Digital or Rosewell possibly with different internal boards to work their magic.

So for normal server operation you will only see 5 drives and to use all 8 you would have to possibly create a RAID Array which is not recommended for WHSv1.

To use this for WHSv1 properly you would have to set this up in CLEAN MODE which is what most refer to as JBOD or Just a Bunch Of Drives in which case if you use the single eSATA Port your EX490 will see only the first 5 drives. With USB however I do believe you will see all 8 drives.

After reading Diehards post I just had to take a look at the unit and indeed there is only 1 eSATA Port and the control board has 2 SATA ports which appear to be one port for each backplane which will make sense to me. What also makes sense to me is how this hardware would work much the same way an 2 bay ICYDOCK works on a host control not port multiplier aware. This means you will only see 1 of the drives but to utilize both it would be down with other software and dip switch configuration to see both drives and then to put them to use you would need to build a supported RAID ARRAY.

So I think to use this unit fully with WHSv1 you would need to use the USB Connection which will not be as fast as eSATA since the EX490 only supports USB2 not USB3 so it will run at USB2 speeds but you would get access to all 8 drives. What is interesting about the unit is it can support the larger drives up to 4TB in size but keep in mind WHSv1 only supports dives up to 2TB in size so if you were going to one day migrate to another solution that can support the larger drives you will be good to go.

Author:  serverlad [ Mon May 05, 2014 7:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Diehard wrote:
Hmmm, I'm surprised you can see all 8 drives in the unit because they make a note :

2. To address more than one HDD in single mode via eSATA, the eSATA controller must support Port Multiplier. Normal eSATA controller with PM support up to 5 HDD's.

Also I noticed they only have 1 esata port. When I've seen 8 bay esata boxes in the past, they had 2 esata ports. 2x4=8


Hi friend, yes when I was looking for a larger external enclosure that had eSata they all had two eSata connections that is why I got this one as it only had one, trust me it is working great, I see all drives as individual ones

Author:  serverlad [ Mon May 05, 2014 7:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Comp1962 wrote:
In the notes at the bottom they acknowledge the 5 drives via eSATA which we are all familiar with: http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/2217

I think to use the fully 8 drives you will be forced to running their software to build a RAID Array so that to the device its connected to will only see that as 1 big drive. It also looks like a CFI Built Unit like those being sold by Sans Digital or Rosewell possibly with different internal boards to work their magic.

So for normal server operation you will only see 5 drives and to use all 8 you would have to possibly create a RAID Array which is not recommended for WHSv1.

To use this for WHSv1 properly you would have to set this up in CLEAN MODE which is what most refer to as JBOD or Just a Bunch Of Drives in which case if you use the single eSATA Port your EX490 will see only the first 5 drives. With USB however I do believe you will see all 8 drives.

After reading Diehards post I just had to take a look at the unit and indeed there is only 1 eSATA Port and the control board has 2 SATA ports which appear to be one port for each backplane which will make sense to me. What also makes sense to me is how this hardware would work much the same way an 2 bay ICYDOCK works on a host control not port multiplier aware. This means you will only see 1 of the drives but to utilize both it would be down with other software and dip switch configuration to see both drives and then to put them to use you would need to build a supported RAID ARRAY.

So I think to use this unit fully with WHSv1 you would need to use the USB Connection which will not be as fast as eSATA since the EX490 only supports USB2 not USB3 so it will run at USB2 speeds but you would get access to all 8 drives. What is interesting about the unit is it can support the larger drives up to 4TB in size but keep in mind WHSv1 only supports dives up to 2TB in size so if you were going to one day migrate to another solution that can support the larger drives you will be good to go.


Hi, well as I said before I set it up with USB cable first then powered it down and disconnected the USB then connected the eSata, powered up and everything is fine, I see all drives separately, trust me its working a dream

Author:  Comp1962 [ Mon May 05, 2014 8:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Do you have more then 5 drives in the enclosure?

Author:  serverlad [ Mon May 05, 2014 8:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Comp1962 wrote:
Do you have more then 5 drives in the enclosure?


Lol, yes as I have been saying, I have 8, 2tb and all is working great!

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Mon May 05, 2014 10:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Maybe something special in the firmware makes it work.
Or because you initially set it up with USB then swapped cables to esata.

Anyway keep us posted on any glitches.

Such as if you have 8 -2tb drives if something happens when you get more than say 10tb of data.
That will prove it is really working.
I am suspicious that possibly they may show up but may not be able to store on all 8 drives.

Another issue is drives dropping out when using esata.
My SANS 5 bay tower raid does that on occasion

Also when you get to the point that you need to remove a bad drive to replace it.

Also if you have duplication turned on will it write to all the drives.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Tue May 06, 2014 11:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

serverlad wrote:
Comp1962 wrote:
Do you have more then 5 drives in the enclosure?


Lol, yes as I have been saying, I have 8, 2tb and all is working great!


Cool I am happy its working for you but if others question it, its only because the EX490 only supports 5 drives via an eSATA connection so your enclosure hardware must be doing some magic to make all 8 drives show up, even in their documentation they also list 5 drives.

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Wed May 07, 2014 10:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

I would like to know where to purchase this unit in the USA.
My card does not like euro transactions.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Wed May 07, 2014 1:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Compare this unit from Sans Digital: http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid-/tr8utplusb.html & http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6816111181

I tell you both the Sharkoon, Rosewill and Sans Digital units are made by CFI and just private labeled and typically very little difference between units sometimes its just the front LED's or lack there of or changes to the finish on the enclosure but the internals are basically the same.

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Wed May 07, 2014 1:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

I understand that.
But when I look at my refrigerator.
KitchenAid.
It is made by whirlpool.
Also the sears kenmore is made by whirlpool.
Also the whirlpool refrigerator is made by whirlpool.
But there is a world of difference between the three.
Both quality,features and factory warranty.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Wed May 07, 2014 2:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

In your comparison I would agree because often there are changes made to the components in the various builds and this is true for most manufacturers who build private labeled items designed to fit into a certain price point or market segment.

In the world of CFI there really is no difference the internals are all the same and that's the key here. The big differences between the units are the enclosure outer shells, labeling if any, but the biggest differences are in the Box the unit is in and the users manual. Now there are different models so one has to be cautious to chose the model with the same internals and that's my point. Figure out which model is the same and find other users who are using those models you can get easier and see if they are using them in say a JBOD Setup also called a CLEAN MODE and confirm they can see all 8 drives from a single eSATA connection. Also you can then find out if they experience drive drop outs.

Now if you really want the Sharkoon unit as described in this thread I did look around at the companies which sell their other products and only saw things like mice, keyboards and a few other things but not the 8 bay enclosure so you would probably need to order it out of country and maybe use PayPal which I am sure your already aware of.

@serverlad Would you mind shutting down your unit and remove the top 2 or 3 drives and read the backplane board number. I am curious if they are still using the same 4 port boards they have been using for years or if they may have redesigned the board. It would also be cool but way to much to ask if you could get board numbers off the back control board which has the DIP Switchs, USB3 and eSATA Ports but I do not want for you to tear your unit apart.

Sometimes these components can be purchased here in the states if you know where to get them.

Author:  Ruben Rocha [ Wed May 07, 2014 2:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Good data to consider I was not aware of.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Wed May 07, 2014 4:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: EX490 Server and Sharkoon 8-Bay RAID-Station

Thing that intrigues me the most is if they were using two 4 port backplanes and if they were the same backplanes they have used in the past then and if I could locate one of those control host boards then I could combine two Port Multiplier Assys and see for myself if you can see all 8 drives and I wonder if you were to do the same with two 5 port backplanes if you would see 10 drives.

It's not so much that I need this but man it would be cool to try out just to see and if it did work then I am certain it would generate some interest from others but to know for sure one would need to know the board numbers used in those enclosures.

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