I’m looking to replace my sff J5040 Wyze machine. Its still plenty fast enough, but storage has become an issue with its limited USB endpoint availability of ~50 device limit.
I know that just switching it up to a newer Intel system could give me double the endpoints because of the two XHCI chip setup, but I was thinking that if I’m going to replace it, I’d like to not limit myself.
As such, even though Ryzen is far faster than I need, it does now support USB4. Does anyone know if the switch to USB4 would give the system a larger address range and have more than 127 USB devices or is that limitation still in place and I might as well not waste my money?
Its currently got 16 disks, and a ZigBee. So not a lot from my point of view.
However its also got the internal hubs to split the front and back ports, I think the Bluetooth is hooked up to USB on the board and there are a few other things that appear as codes. What it means is that trying to connect another disk to swap out on my ZFS fails to enumerate on the USB. I dont think the number of items are unreasonable but this little box wasn’t quite designed for this usecase.
[Edit] As mentioned on the other thread, these only have 50 endpoints because Intel, and each device is 2 endpoints so there are only 20 devices total that can be plugged in.
You currently have 16 disks connected via USB, in a ZFS array?
I highly recommend reimagining your path forward. Define your needs (sounds like a high-capacity storage server to me), define your constraints (e.g. cost), then develop a solution to best meet them.
Even if you are trying to build one on the cheap with a high Wife Acceptance Factor, there are better ways to do so than attaching 16+ USB disks to a thin client.
This is like the epitome of the XY Problem.
https://xyproblem.info/
I’ve tried to respond to everyone who have given their opinion of my set up in a top level comment to try and keep it on topic. You can respond there if you feel like you have anything to add.
https://feddit.uk/post/21088443/13862900
Oh my do not do this USB can be very fragile and you array might just implode one day.
Go get yourself 2-3 servers and then load them each with some drives. From there setup Ceph and profit.
That sounds absolutely gross.
I’ve tried to respond to everyone who have given their opinion of my set up in a top level comment to try and keep it on topic. You can respond there if you feel like you have anything to add.
https://feddit.uk/post/21088443/13862900
Your setup is definitely “non standard”
I would strongly look into proper SAS or Sata. USB is not designed for what you are doing. Also writing a long comment comment about how you have been in tech for decades does not make your setup any less crazy. I can not understate that a standard setup would be way better.
Why not sata or nvme drives?
I’ve tried to respond to everyone who have given their opinion of my set up in a top level comment to try and keep it on topic. You can respond there if you feel like you have anything to add.
https://feddit.uk/post/21088443/13862900
Thanks, that’s a great write up