CRJ 24-Pin ATX Power Supply Jumper Bridge Tool

I don't know if there's some special sauce with Supermicro and their power supplies, but with a normal ATX power supply you can power it (and thereby anything else attached to it) by shorting the PS_ON pin with a ground pin. You can do this with a paper clip or whatever, but for a permanent installation like this I prefer a little jumper like this: https://www.amazon.com/CRJ-24-Pin-Supply-Jumper-Bridge/dp/B01N8Q0TOE

I build my own SAS disk enclosures out of an old PC case, PSU, and some cables / adapters. If you have an old PC case and PSU around then you can build your own SAS enclosure. Get an "8e" card like this with 2 external SAS ports on the back. This goes in the main server. https://www.ebay.com/itm/164178315290 Then use an old PC case and normal PC power supply to power the drives. The power supply won't turn on without a motherboard unless you jumper 2 pins or use one of these. https://www.amazon.com/CRJ-24-Pin-Supply-Jumper-Bridge/dp/B01N8Q0TOE Then two SFF-8088 to 4X SATA cables. Just thread it through a hole in the case and connect to the drives and the back of the SAS card. https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-SFF-8088-Female-Controller-Backplane/dp/B013G4EX9K?th=1 Or SFF-8088 to 4X SAS SFF-8482 https://www.amazon.com/Mini-SAS-SFF-8088-SFF-8482-Power-Cable/dp/B08NGJ7F5K?th=1 I've been doing this for over 10 years and it is rock solid with no random disconnects like I've had with USB and eSATA port multipliers. What kind of SAS card do you have now? I think there are some Broadcom 8i8e cards with 2 internal ports and 2 external to support 16 drives total. There are brackets like this to convert internal SAS ports into external https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Internal-SFF-8087-External-SFF-8088/dp/B07ZGYXCP6

If you have an old PC case and PSU around then you can build your own SAS enclosure. Get an "8e" card like this with 2 external SAS ports on the back. This goes in the main server. https://www.ebay.com/itm/164178315290 Then use an old PC case and normal PC power supply to power the drives. The power supply won't turn on without a motherboard unless you jumper 2 pins or use one of these. https://www.amazon.com/CRJ-24-Pin-Supply-Jumper-Bridge/dp/B01N8Q0TOE Then two SFF-8088 to 4X SATA cables. Just thread it through a hole in the case and connect to the drives and the back of the SAS card. https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-SFF-8088-Female-Controller-Backplane/dp/B013G4EX9K?th=1 I've been doing this for over 10 years and it is rock solid with no random disconnects like I've had with USB and eSATA port multipliers.