Several DS14 MK2 FC shelves acquired

[JDAVENPORT]

Hello,

I was given 5 or 6 DS14 MK2 FC units filled with 73 GB hard drives (model ST373207FC) by a company going out of business. I am a relative newbie to the storage world but would like to use these shelves. Is there a way (homebrew or otherwise) to use them without purchasing additional hardware? (a head unit? filer?)

What about the drives themselves? Googling around seems to indicate they are Fiber Connectors, not SCSI or SATA or anything I am used to... if I can't use the shelves with the disks in them, can I use just the disks?

Thanks to all.

Jeff

[BGELINMAN]

Hello.

I saw filer NetApp  DS14 MKL2 FC shelve on ebay and planning to buy one.

for use one shelve/flier I think you must have (or buy)  Fibre channel HBA card (PCI-X ort PCI-e depending  PCI-x is cheaper ex. £39 ) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300711502748?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

If you want to connect all shelves I think you must buy FC switch  8 or more ports like that: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251090117598?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Assuming you have FC HBA card in some PC or server I think you need cable HSSDC from DS16 end, some HBA card use optical transceiver so direct connect without FC switch or proper cable is impossible.

According theory and practice rear side ID must be set to 1 (unless 2 or more filers are connected together i.e. like daisy-chain).

I received my shelve.

Yesterday late I successfully connect to Linux  FC14 using san switch IBM 3534 F08  ( first try with PCI QLA200 (linux drv. ql2xxx  san switch wont' pass further) fail ) Emulex LP9000  (PCI-X card in PCI slot) did it (i.e. successfully registered in san switch speed ~40MB/sec ). Linux saw 14 hdd to /dev/sds tryng to format  fail "kernel: [26471.590756] sd 13:0:10:0: [sdp] Unsupported sector size 520." I read on web and succeed to format using:  sg_format --format --size=512 --verbose /dev/sdp , after that fdisk make partition one ,  waiting maybe 5min to settle down activity on FC disk I was able to format ext4 and mount copied some files to test. Next practice connect 2 filers DS14MK2 to saw switch.

Interestingly I tested using one company SFP 1GB from network switch it was working 850nm (unexpected ) DS14 switch was on position 1GB FC !!

Using finisair 2GB SFP and backside  switch position 2GB did not work connecting to san switch. 😞 .

If you want to use just disks look here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Fibre-Fiber-Channel-4-disk-drive-mini-backplane-/150385804813?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2303b1460d

or search ebay: Fiber Channel 4-disk drive mini-backplane​!

hope my info will help

greetings