Sun Storage J4400 SATA Interposer Card

[Stanley Chiu]

Going by the parts lists here: http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/validateUser.do?target=Systems/J4400/components&source=

All the SATA drive kits come with the hard drive, mounting bracket, and a SATA interposer card.

We want to use 2TB drives, but Sun wants $1645 (!) for a single kit. That's just criminal.

We may be able to source the mounting brackets, but I need to find out whether we can source the SATA interposer card.

Who here has worked with the J4200s or J4400s with SATA drives? Do you know if the SATA interposer card that's used is completely proprietary, or do they use an off-the-shelf part?

Could they possibly be using the LSI LSISS9252?

http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/standard_product_ics/sas_sata_protocol_bridge/lsiss9252/index.html

Does that look like what the J4200/J4400 uses?

Thanks!

[Stanley Chiu]

I managed to get a picture of the interposer card: Loading Image...

So from that, you can see that it uses LSI's LSISS1320 AAMUX, but specifically, it looks like they use a custom produced version of the LSISS9132, like this: http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/documentation/storage/standard_product_ics/sata_multiplexers/lsiss9132_pb_fin.pdf

Doesn't look like this is going to be something that can be sourced from a third party.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Lutz Schumann]

No picture, but something like this:
http://www.provantage.com/supermicro-aoc-smp-lsiss9252~7SUP91MC.htm ?

[Stanley Chiu]

Hmm, no... that's the item I linked to in my first post.

[David Koch]

The J4400 (and J4200) are not Sun's own hardware products. They are manufactured by Quanta as the 1400 and 1200 SAS JBODs. Sun do their own firmware to make it a Sun product. You will be able to get both the drive brackets and SATA interposer cards through Quanta distribution.

The other way to get the bracket and SATA interposer card is to buy the cheapest Sun SATA drives - see if you can find someone with stock of the old 250GB or 500GB SATA HDDs, remove that HDD and fit your new 2GB SATA HDD. We bought a lot of the Sun 250GB SATA HDDs for this very purpose, they cost us about US $140 each.

Also, the J4200/J4400 air management sleds (MN: XTA-4400-6AMS) are a fully functional drive bracket with a screwed in metal tray that substitutes for the actual HDD. It doesn't have the SATA interposer card, but if use use SAS HDDs rather than SATA HDDs you are now home free.

You can use the Seagate 1TB ST31000640SS SAS drive with a drive bracket, or you can use the Seagate 1TB ST31000340NS with a SATA interposer card. The drive brackets have two sets of drive mount holes to deal with the differing position of the HDD depending on whether it needs the SATA interposer card, or the SAS HDD directly plugging into the backplane. We have used both of these as methods of adding HDDs to J4400 systems, and we have these in constant use without issue (Sun CAM complains but that's OK).

So for 2GB HDDs, you would use the Seagate ST32000644SS for SAS though it's a 6Gbps SAS HDD but it will have to run at 3Gbps in the J4x00 JBOD - so check this before buying any quantity. The Seagate ST32000644NS is the 3Gbps 2GB SATA unit that should work with the SATA interposer. Once again, check before committing to any quantity. Or send us either or both and we'll run it up and check it for you!

Our preference is to use the SAS drives rather than the SATA drives with the SATA interposer. It's simpler, true dual-path, provides clean MPX-IO, and the SAS HDD may be less that $100 more expensive than the SATA HDD.

[Rod Dines]

I have a box of 6 new Sun J4200/J4400 SATA HDD Caddies (250GB SATA drives removed) moutings I am selling on ebay. Do a search on ebay for the listing title
"Sun Storage J4200/J4400 Array-SATA Hard Drive Caddy x 6"
or follow this link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110553190864#shId