I wanted a storage solution that is easily extendible. Not a small consumer NAS but a JBOD. The result is a complete storage build around a NetApp DS4246 JBOD disk shelf, a SuperMicro 815 controller system, eight large disks and a clean software layer that brings everything together. It became one of the most satisfying upgrades in my homelab.
The hardware foundation
The NetApp DS4246 offers twenty four hot swap bays and a SAS backplane that gives stable and high bandwidth communication.
My controller is a SuperMicro 815 7 x9drw if with dual Intel Xeon E5 2650 processors and 128 GB of memory. It runs Proxmox and acts as the heart of the entire system. It handles storage management and future development workloads.
Using 6 TB SATA disks with SAS interposer trays
The DS4246 is designed for SAS drives. My drives are 6 TB SATA models. To integrate them, I used hard disk trays with a SATA to SAS interposer. These small boards convert the SATA interface into a SAS compatible signal so the shelf recognises the disks.
After placing all disks into their trays, the shelf accepted them perfectly.
Connecting and configuring the system
SAS cables connect the DS4246 to the SuperMicro controller. Once everything was powered on, all disks appeared in Proxmox exactly as expected. That moment when the hardware becomes a real system is always rewarding.
I created the storage pools in Proxmox, labeled disks, performed read and write tests and verified stability. I keep everything structured and logic based. Clear naming. Predictable setup. It makes long term maintenance easy.
Adding Samba for Windows access
Since I work with both Linux and Windows, I wanted direct file access from my Windows machines. I added a Samba service on the storage server. This gave me a clean and simple way to mount shared folders directly in Windows Explorer.
The result is a Linux based storage on the backend and a Windows friendly access on the frontend. I can now use my NAS for documents, project files, testing artefacts and backups directly from my Windows laptop without any extra complexity.
What I learned from this project
Enterprise hardware is very approachable once you understand the underlying concepts. Working with SAS shelves, interposers and controllers teaches you how real world storage infrastructure operates. It brings confidence and opens the door to more advanced homelab projects.
This project reminded me of something important. Building things yourself gives you understanding and ownership. It is a mindset that matches my ambition to grow in software development and software testing.
Future plans
A monitoring dashboard for disk health.
Automated snapshots.
Off site backups.
Upgrade from a 1Gb/s backup to a 10Gb/s fiber backbone.
A second and a third DS4246 for future expansion.
Power savings for the controller