I have little experience with building servers, so apologies for the silly question: what backplane + cage could I use with the SAS connectors on the ALTRAD8UD motherboard?
I saw this very nice build: ASRock Rack Ampere home builds - #17 by nmasse-itix but instead of the whole server case which contains the nvme backplane, I’d like to initially get just a compatible backplane that I can hook up to my current build.
Greatly appreciate it if anyone can help me with some links!
Would something like this work? HPE SFF Cage | Servershop24.de
Can you tell us a bit more with what you already have and what you want to achieve ?
The HPE cage is for SATA/SAS hard disks or SSD while the ALTRAD8UD SlimSAS ports are PCIe only. The HPE cage is SFF-8087 while the motherboard is SFF-8654. Plus HP hardware usually have some proprietary bits that limit their compatibility.
Do you already own the NVMe SSD ? If yes, you can find cheap adapters for U.2 or M.2 SSD along with the required SFF-8654 connectivity.
If you search on Amazon or eBay for “SFF-8654 m.2” or “SFF-8654 u.2”, do you find what you were looking for ?
Can you tell us a bit more with what you already have
Right now I have an ATX tower built with the only storage being an m.2 ssd for OS. I might switch to a server box later on, but I just want to get everything working in this format for now.
what you want to achieve ?
Initially to connect some additional drives, without occupying any of the PCIe slots. So looking into using the SlimSAS connectors to attach some drives.
Ideally I want to set up that additional storage in some RAID configuration.
Do you already own the NVMe SSD ?
No, I don’t have the drives. When I started looking into this, I almost went for some drives like the Kioxia PM7-R, but, as you mentioned, the ALTRAD8UD SlimSAS ports are PCIe only. So I believe those won’t work. Or will they with the adaptors that you mention “SFF-8654 u.2”?
Will something like this work? https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/highpoint-sas-cable-sff8639-sff8654-06-m-internal-cables-pc-15871053
with Kioxia PM7-R or equivalent?
Thank you, @nmasse-itix !
The Kioxia PM7-R are SAS SSD. To my understanding, it requires a SAS controller (to be inserted in a PCIe slot) in order to work with this motherboard.
If you want to use the SlimSAS / SFF-8654 ports on the motherboard, it has to be an NVMe SSD.
Free choice for the form factor, U.2 or M.2, as you prefer.
U.2 SSD can be “Intel DC P[4 letter code]”, Samsung PM1733, etc.
M.2 SSD can be bought for cheap from any consumer electronics shop.
And then, pick the adapter corresponding to the chosen form factor.
Got it, thanks!
Is there a possibility to use a RAID configuration with the SAS-U.2 adapters that you mentioned? I guess I would need a RAID controller that I can attach, possibly via a similar adapter cable.
Software RAID can be configured on Linux using mdadm or lvm.
Hardware RAID usually requires a dedicated PCIe controller. Something like this: 8-Port M.2 NVMe RAID Controllers Offer Up to 28,000 MB/s of Storage Bandwidth | Tom's Hardware (for illustrative purposes, I’ve not tested it!)
Maybe something like this?
It is ARM64, RAM a bit low 32GB, but maybe they did some super duper optimization ;).
It is not backplane, but has 20x U.2 and lots of network interfaces.
By the way SATA is not supported on your motherboard with SLIMSAS or Oculink. Checked with ASRock. Copy paste from email:
Kindly remind you ALTRAD8UD-1L2T does “not” support SATA over SlimSAS or OcuLink.
The only way to realize it is to apply a PCIe SATA expansion card or solution below.
They were suggesting U.2 or U.3 cable with adapter.
CBL: Supermicro SlimSAS (SFF-8654) 8i zu 2x U.2 (SFF-8639)
SSD: 1,92TB Kioxia CD8-R Data Center, U.2 NVMe, PCIe 4.0 x4
So you can have 2x U.2 NVMe.
I have found some Asus PCIe cards with 4x NVMe, but not sure if they will work.
One is PCIe gen 5 and second is gen 4. Both under 90€.
I get an Access token not found error when accessing that pdf.
Ok. Don’t know what’s wrong with the link.
Was working.
Go on https://mikrotik.com/ and look for newsletter 123 with a picture with green device.
Or directly to device that despite of being green it’s called Rose 
Thanks everyone!
Just plugged in this cable and a pair of Kioxia CD8-R and it seems alright! A nice surprise is that the clip of the cable fits the receptacle on the motherboard socket!