Hey... ok I know this question has been asked a couple times, but there is no definitive answer.
The question involves mounting other Dell or 3rd party Harddrives into a PE2900 III server.
Based on my interpretation of the documentation (I do not own the server myself at this point or else I could look) the PE2900 III has a 1x8 SAS backplane and an optional 1x2 SAS backplane for the flexbay. It appears that this backplane is used regardless of whether you are using SAS or SATA drives.
There are two drive sleds that are mentioned in the documentation, a SATA and a SATAu.
There is a very confusing quote in the documentation that states:
SATA hard drives that connect directly to the SAS backplane must be installed in SATA drive carriers (labeled "SATA" ). Only SATA hard drives with interposer cards can be installed in SATAu drive carriers.
This quote makes it appear that a "normal" SATA drive can be put into a SATA sled (without interposer) and will connect to the backplane. I don't know if this is correct because it means the physical interface on a SATA drive would have to plug-in to a SAS backplane. Does this happen?
The other option is that the SATA drive is placed in the second sled and an interposer card is used. There has been some debate as to whether this interposer card is simply used to make the right physical connection or if it provides some additional functionality.
I am under the impression that there is only one right way to do things:
1) Put a SATA drive in a standard SATA tray
OR
2) Put a SATA drive in a SATAu tray with an interposer
The question is what is the proper way to put a SATA drive into a PE2900 III with a SAS backplane? Can a SATA drive plug directly into a SAS backplane with no adapter to bridge the physical connection?
Not to offend, but please don't post with a "I think..." or "Sounds like that would work" there are several other postings on the forum on this topic that never arrived at a definitive answer using this approach.
I am also not sure that this answer is the same for all PE2900s. I have found some areas on Dell's site where they show the SATA storage as SATAu and others where they refer to it as just SATA, so the PE2900 III may be different than it's predecessors.
It would be most helpful if a PE2900 III owner with SATA drives can confirm if they are using a SATA sled or a SATAu sled with interposer.
Thanks so much!
Message Edited by bengalih on 02-06-2008 02:33 PM
