Using a SAS controller card in a PC - how does this work?

[rm5]

I understand this might not be the best place to post this - and that I'd be better off posting on an HP forum or something - but I'll ask here cause I need an answer.

Old HP workstations (Z420/620) are going incredibly cheap on eBay, and I am considering picking one up in the next couple months, doing some upgrades, and using it as a PC. However, I have 10 unused 3.5" SAS drives (from a different project that ultimately failed) - eight 2 TB and two 3 TB. I'd like to use at least some of these drives in said HP workstation as storage drives.

After researching for several hours now, I've come to the conclusion that neither the Z420 or Z620 support SAS drives out of the box (the motherboard does not have SAS connectors), and that I'd need to get a SAS controller card. So after researching even more, I've found out exactly how a SAS controller card works. From my understanding (please, anyone, correct me if I am wrong about this), you do the following:

1. Connect the SAS controller card to an empty PCI-e slot in the PC.
2. Get a mini-SAS to SAS breakout cable and connect it to the port(s) on the card.
3. Connect the SAS drives to the other end of the breakout cable.

This seems fairly simple to me. My question is: how will Windows recognize the drives connected to the controller card? I know I'd need drivers for the card, but exactly how do you configure it such that Windows recognizes the drives and that I could format them to use as storage drives?

Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Nermal]

I don't know about SAS specifically, but back in the day I had to use a SATA card (this would have been in Windows XP). Once the driver was installed, the drives "just worked". Just like with a USB drive, it showed up as a valid drive once connected. I suspect SAS would work the same way.

The "fun" part with a SATA card was booting Windows from it

 

[arw]

From my limited experience (see bottom), what I think you should look for, is a card that supports the "JBOD" mode or has an "IT-firmware".

"Just a Bunch Of Disks" is the contrary approach to RAID (0, 1, 5, 10, 50):
Each connected drive is independent of the others and can be addressed separately.

But some cards only have an "IR" firmware installed (Integrated Raid).
What you'd want is one with an "IT" firmware (Initiator Target). It works as a controller in passthrough mode without any RAID layer.

With your mentioned breakout cables, each drive should then be handled as an independent disk.

(I started with an HP Z400. I then got a 'Dell Perc H310' card with "IR firmware" which was basically useless for my needs.
I flashed the 'LSI 9211-8i' firmware which makes the card run in "IT mode".
Now each disk is detected by Windows as a separate drive with its own drive letter.
In the meantime I upgraded the server to an HP ML30 Gen10 Plus and the card continues to work flawlessly in Windows Server 2022.)

 

[rm5]

Thanks for your help guys! So could I get one of these? @arw , you mentioned the LSI 9211-8i, so could I just get that card?

Here's an eBay link, for instance: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155222053316

With the above one, I'd need to get mini-SAS to SAS breakout cables, as the ones it comes with are mini-SAS to SATA.

 

[arw]

I do not own SAS drives so I cannot vouch for any breakout cables.
But the linked product is basically my setup. I use the exact cables with SATA drives.