CX3/CX4 compatibility query

Question

This, I'm afraid, is a highly newb question - apologies for time wasted by my ignorance - and one which will doubtless turn out to be a lesson learned for me (RESEARCH BEFORE PURCHASE!) In an uncharacteristic moment of abandon, I purchased what was listed as an EMC CX3 KTN-STL4 15-bay enclosure (although one of the labels on the side contains the string: CX-4PDAE40F). I had simply assumed (sigh, when will I learn...) that I could install a suitable fibre channel HBA in my desktop PC (Vista), buy almost any old fibre-channel drives off eBay (I have a couple of 500GB 7k2 SCA40 drives already), load them into the enclosure, and be a happy, fast-storage camper for not an awful lot of cash. I fear now that I may just have proved my idiocy, as further research suggests this enclosure might only be connectable to suitable EMC matching hardware (rather than a standard desktop PC), and that the list of drives the enclosure will work with is relatively limited anyway. Confirmation of the above would be gratefully received. I shall then return to dabbling with rather more basic hardware, and re-list the enclosure on eBay, lesson learned. Regards, Jon.

Triophile · Accepted Answer

Thanks for clearing that up Dynamox. I'll have to put it back on eBay and do a bit more reading before my next purchase... Regards, Jon.

dynamox · Answer

Jon,it sounds like you bought a DAE, which is just a shelf of disks that has no brains. In order for CX3/4 to function you have to have additiona components, for example:EMC arrays support only specific drives, with specific firmware version and special formatting.

CLARiiON

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