Supermicro SAS Backplanes Explained | Supermicro Tech Tip

In this video, I'm going to show you the 3 types of Supermicro SAS backplanes available in Supermicro servers. First, there are the "TQ" backplanes, which are direct attached but have individual connectors for each port. These are typically the cheapest type of backplanes, but they require a lot of cabling and SAS lanes from the controllers. Second are the "A" backplanes. These are similar to the "TQ" backplanes, but use consolidated SAS ports like SFF-8087 instead of individual SATA ports. This helps to reduce the amount of cabling, but you still need a SAS lane from the controller for each individual port. Finally, there are the "EL" backplanes which are SAS expander backplanes. These backplanes have a built-in SAS expander onboard and help to reduce the amount of connectivity required, and simplifies the number of SAS lanes needed from the controller. However, SAS expander backplanes are usually the most expensive. Additionally, there are SAS expander backplanes with dual SAS expander chips, e.g., the BPN-SAS2-826EL2. The dual SAS expander backplanes can provide redundancy as well as higher I/O bandwidth with SAS drives by load balancing the I/O traffic across both data channels.

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Links to other videos mentioned:
2TB Limit -    • The 2TB Limit  
SAS expander videos playlist -    • How to use SAS-2 Expanders  
How to size your bandwidth -    • How to size your bandwidth for your s...  
How to swap Supermicro 826 backplane -    • How to swap Supermicro 826 backplane ...  
How to swap Supermicro 836 backplane -    • How to replace the backplane in Super...  
How to swap Supermicro 846 backplane -    • How to swap Supermicro 846 backplane  

Timestamps:
0:57 - Overview of Supermicro backplane types
1:43 - Explaining "TQ" directly attached backplanes (e.g., SAS836TQ)
5:35 - Explaining "A" directly attached backplanes (e.g., SAS826A)
8:45 - Explaining "EL1" SAS expander backplanes (e.g., BPN-SAS2-826EL1)
14:58 - Explaining "EL2" Dual SAS expander backplanes (e.g., BPN-SAS2-216EL2)
18:16 - The advantages of a dual SAS expander backplane
23:35 - Recap

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