Question

Using a SAS 6/iR controller, can I switch from SATA drives to SAS drives?

Asked by: Plumcrazy09

I have a brand new Dell 2950 PowerEdge with the integrated SAS 6/iR controller. Currently it has 4 hot swap 500GB SATA drives connected to the controller. My question is can I remove these drives from the hot swap trays and replace them with 15k SAS drives? I do not know if the connectors are the same on the SAS drives as are on the SATA drives.

Thanks.

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Asked On
2008-01-30 at 19:16:20ID23125230
Tags

Dell

,

SAS 6/iR

,

SATA vs SAS Drives

Topics

Storage Technology

,

Computer Servers

,

Computer Hard Drives

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: lnkevinPosted on 2008-01-31 at 06:43:28ID: 20786963

The connector at the drive bay should be the same. I am not sure whether or not you have to open the box and look in the controller to see if there is additional connection to SATA. Also, you may need to get in the controller bios to see if you need to disable SATA and enable SAS...
Theriotically, SAS 6/iR integrated controller support both SAS/SATA. Check page 13 of this guide for the integrated column:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/RAID/SAS6iR/en/PDF/en_ug.pdf

K

 

by: Plumcrazy09Posted on 2008-01-31 at 07:12:31ID: 20787269

K -

What I'm looking for is someone to tell me if I can remove the SATA drives from the hot swap trays and replace with SAS drives without needing any other hardware and have them work. I believe the current SATA drives have what is called an interposer board between the drive and the backplane and I do not know if I will need that with the SAS drives or if the SAS drives will already have the appropriate connector for the 6/iR backplane. This server is brand new so there is no OS or data that I have to worry about yet. I just want to get the drives swapped out if possible before I start on this server.

 

by: lnkevinPosted on 2008-01-31 at 07:31:33ID: 20787502

You don't need additional hardware to make them work. Just swapp the drive (same physical size 3.5" because SAS came out with 2.5" drive) and it will work fine. In my last post, I try to point out the documentation that said SAS 6/iR controller is compatible with both SAS and SATA.

K

 

by: Plumcrazy09Posted on 2008-01-31 at 07:52:03ID: 31426638

Thanks K, thats what I wanted to hear. I am going to replace the 3.5" SATA's with 3.5" SAS drives.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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