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At the office we have an Intel Modular Server (v2 I think), and we're running low on storage space (all drive bays filled, and we're only using 3 compute modules on this thing).

As far as I'm reading the documentation and whatever else I can find online, the chassis has a SSF-8088 connector and should support expanders.

However, I'm not sure if just ANY expansion product with the above mentioned connector will work, or if only select few are compatible.

The documentation above lists a few specific vTrak products - however all of them are old enough that getting them might be more trouble than it's worth. However, at the same time, the products are mentioned somewhere inside the contents of the PDF - if ONLY these products are compatible, then I'd expect to find an explicit list somewhere... which I've not found thus far.

PS. I'm quite new to this storage-space-expanding-problem. If I'm using certain technical terms incorrectly or the question is obvious - I do apologise. Feel free to correct me and / or smack me with a trout.

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There's no guarantee at all that a generic disk enclose may work (reliably). Chances are it will but what risk can you take? If the controller's certified expansions aren't available any more I'd add a controller that is guaranteed to work a) in this server and b) with the enclosure you have in mind.

Depending on what your performance requirements are and what number and kind of NICs the server's already got integrated, a (fairly simple) iSCSI enclosure may also provide a stop-gap solution. Don't fall into the cheap&large drives trap though: only few but large drives may provide the stoage space you need but they may not provide the reliability and rebuild times you require.

Looking at the server's age I'd replace the server entirely.

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  • Replacing the old chassis is a less pressing matter compared to the low disk space. Unfortunately, we don't have the budget to make a complete overhaul of everything at once. We need enough speed for daily operations and reliability (in case of the proverbial poo+fan problem), but the rebuild times can be long.
    – MBender
    Jan 19, 2018 at 13:02
  • Also I considered iSCSI, but the network is 1 gigabit Ethernet, which may be a limiting factor. That said, the server has PLENTY of NICs as it has an entire switch built-in.
    – MBender
    Jan 19, 2018 at 13:07
  • Most iSCSI initiators (depending on OS or driver/NIC) can leverage multipathing, so you can put the NICs to use. However, they need to be real network interfaces - one internal port with a bunch of switched ports doesn't increase the server bandwidth. Our small hosts only use 4x GbE as well, works fine. A 10 GbE NIC should also be affordable.
    – Zac67
    Jan 19, 2018 at 19:51
  • Good point. The compute modules come with 2 NICs each, I think, and those NICs are 1GB. One's obviously used for general network traffic. I guess the other one could be linked directly to the iSCSI device. That's still less than an old 3gb SAS... :/
    – MBender
    Jan 20, 2018 at 13:42
  • Also, while NICs ARE affordable, actually adding more to the compute units might not be possible.
    – MBender
    Jan 20, 2018 at 14:25

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