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zeki

12 Posts

37474

October 13th, 2007 01:00

does md3000 support sata drives?

i looked through several of the md3000 manuals and thought it would support sata drives, but in one of the manuals it said it only listed supported sas drives. i was wondering if it is possible to use sata. i hope it does because i have 15x750gb sata drives right here.. i also want to ask if the md1000 would support the sata drives. TIA

Message Edited by zeki on 10-12-2007 09:31 PM

cjtompsett

104 Posts

October 13th, 2007 19:00

The MD3000,MD3000i, or daisy chained MD1000 do not support SATA drives per the support matrix found on support.dell.com.Also,
 
The MD1000 supports SATA drives when connected to a PERC5e. Note, an appropriate carrier and interposer board are necessary for them to work in the MD1000.
 
-cjtompsett

maxusa

63 Posts

October 14th, 2007 02:00

The facts are that (1) all carriers SAS, SATA, SATAu are the same and can house SATA hard drives, and (2) interposer is not necessary for most current SATA drives. Same applies to PE1950, PE2950, and MD1000. Why Dell makes P/N madness is beyond my knowledge.

maxusa

63 Posts

October 14th, 2007 04:00

Great info, thanks. Regarding the carriers, all of them have dual screw holes so both SAS and SATA drives fit with or without the interposer. The only difference is the P/N and imprint line showing the corresponding drive placement. Dell itself ships PERC 5/i + SATA-equipped systems (e.g., PE2950 I received) without the interposers. Apparently, SATA drives without interposers are supported. Go figure!

cjtompsett

104 Posts

October 14th, 2007 04:00

From my own experience....
(1) The carriers are slightly different between SAS and SATA drives. The SAS carrier has a peace of metal that makes the drive fit further back in the carrier because it does not need an interposer. The SATA carrier allows the drive to sit further into the carrier so the interposer will fit.
This link shows the drives and the carriers.
 
(2) The interposer is required for SATA drives when being used in an MD1000.
The interposer allows for path redundancy within the enclosure. SATA drives have one port for communication where as SAS drives have two. Also without the interposer card I have seen, first hand, incorrect informatuion reported by the OMSA storage management utility.
 
-cjtompsett

cjtompsett

104 Posts

October 14th, 2007 14:00

Correct,
     SATA drives in the server chasis itself do not use the interposer, as you have seen with the 2950. When a SATA drive is used in a MD1000 attached to a PERC5e the interposer is necessary.
 
-cjtompsett

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