I would get a sata card. They are pretty cheap and are more reliable and flexible
homelab
1.) Yes, SATA to eSATA will work.
2.) It is not worth it, for stability. Having a cable from mobo to something outside case is unsafe at minimum.
I would go with the other recommendation: get a cheap pci sata/esata card. Cost is small, safety and reliability goes way up, no more kludge adapter going to inside of case.
Well the issue is I do not think you are able to install one on the optiplex micro form factor. If you know otherwise I would appreciate the info
Ah, you are correct... then yes, sata to mobo, with something to secure that cable very well.
Dang I was hoping you knew something I didn’t there haha. Thanks for your advice
I don't know about "shouldn't use USB for storage;" it's perfectly fine. However, if you can use a SATA interface, I would. You'll get better performance in general from it, and that's what the port is there for.
I'm not sure it's going to work like you hope it will. Your enclosure can run 'raid' but zfs doesn't like raid. As far as 'jbod' thru one esata cable...thats not how zfs likes it either.
Your best bet is to buy a m2/nvme to 5 sata port adapter so zfs can distinguish each drive. But then... the question is if your enclosure allows that.
I love mini pc's but for zfs there's not a lot of wriggle room. High end ones have dual nvme ports allowing for zfs mirror. Other than that you'll have to go said sata_nvme + an enclosure that powers all disks but allows for individual sata cables. It's gonna be clunky macgyvering too.
If I'm wrong I'll accept the flak.