ZFS Advice

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 07:19:53AM -0500, Wes Morgan wrote:
> On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, Wes Morgan wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, Peter Schuller wrote:
>>
>>>> Or, it could be that a UIO slot is specifically a PCI-Ex8 slot?  You
>>>> can buy risers that convert "1U PCI-E (x16) to 1 UIO and 1 PCI-E "
>>>
>>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/UIO_cards.cfm
>>>
>>> This one actually says in the clear:
>>>
>>>  "8-Lane PCI-Express interface (Supermicro UIO slot)"
>>>
>>> My guess is one of the following:
>>>
>>> * It means nothing but "PCI-E", and the UIO stuff is just marketing BS.
>>>
>>> * It means "extra PCI-E", and the UIO stuff is just marketing BS.
>>>
>>> * (Based on the grapical animation on the UIO page) They actually do have a
>>> special slot on their motherboard for use with their special UIO card which
>>> then provides a few extra PCI-E slots. The mentioning of UIO on pages
>>> describing standard PCI-E cards is just marketing BS resulting from the
>>> technically correct fact that they can be used with their UIO card.
>>>
>>> If I don't find specific information to the contrary I'll probably 
>>> chance it
>>> and see.
>>
>> As you say, it's hard to tell from the SuperMicro page. LSI has this card:
>>
>> http://lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/lsisas3081er/index.html
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118092
>>
>> Which is their official card with the same chipset. The slots on both 
>> the SuperMicro and the LSI cards look mighty similar. The only obvious 
>> difference is the little right-angle thing next to the PCI-E interface. 
>> I'm very interested to see if it works out. If I wasn't going to be 
>> away for a few weeks I'd try to abuse CDW's return policy to give it a 
>> test.
>
> Has anyone, by chance, tried one of those SuperMicro UIO cards in a PCIe  
> slot yet? If not, I'm going to give it a try unless someone is sure it  
> won't work.

I don't think it'll work.  If you check Supermicro's site under the
Accessory section, you can find some of their riser cards which convert
the UIO slots into either PCI-X or PCIe depending upon what you
want/need.  Searching Google for higher-quality images of the risers
indicates that the wiring/pinout is indeed different/custom, which is
why the riser is needed.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |