Installing System Components 81
All drives are installed at the front of the system and connect to the system
board through the SAS backplane. Hard drives are supplied in special hot-
swappable hard-drive carriers that fit in the hard-drive bays.
CAUTION: Before attempting to remove or install a drive while the system is
running, see the documentation for the storage controller card to ensure that the
host adapter is configured correctly to support hot-swap drive removal and
insertion.
CAUTION: Do not turn off or reboot your system while the drive is being formatted.
Doing so can cause a drive failure.
NOTE: Use only drives that have been tested and approved for use with the SAS
backplane board.
When you format a hard drive, allow enough time for the formatting to be
completed. Be aware that high-capacity hard drives can take a number of
hours to format.
Mixed SAS/SATA Hard-Drive Configurations
Mixed hard-drive configurations of SAS and SATA drives are allowed. In this
configuration, two SAS drives must be installed in hard-drive slots 0 and 1
only. The remaining slots can have SATA drives installed.
Mixed 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch configurations of SAS and SATA drives are also
supported in the 3.5-inch–bay chassis only. In this configuration, two 10,000-
RPM 2.5-inch SAS drives installed in 3.5-inch adapters must be used in hard-
drive slots 0 and 1 only (see "Front-Panel Features and Indicators"). The
remaining hard drives must be 3.5 inches in size and must be either all SAS or
all SATA drives.
Removing a Hard-Drive Blank
CAUTION: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty hard-drive bays must
have drive blanks installed.
1 Remove the front bezel. See
"
Removing the Front Bezel
."
2 Grasp the front of the hard-drive blank, press the release lever on the
right side, and
slide the blank out until it is free of the drive bay
. See
Figure 3-4
.