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Drive installation rules

Understanding the technical rules for drives helps you correctly install and configure drives in the system.

General rules​

  1. The drive bays are numbered to indicate the installation order (starting from number “0”). Follow the installation order when you install a drive. See Front view.

  2. The drives in a single RAID array must be of the same type (as in hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and so on), same size, and same capacity.

  3. If your server comes with rear drives, always install the rear backplane first. The drive installation should be rear drive bay 16 → 17, and then front drive bay 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9.

  4. The installation order of different drive interface types: NVMe SSD → SAS SSD → SATA SSD → SAS HDD→ SATA HDD.

  5. For EDSFF drives, follow the numerical order of the drive bay sequence. Do not skip bays when installing EDSFF drives.

Mixing rules​

  1. You can use drives from different vendors.

  2. You can mix drives of different types and different capacities in one system, but not in one RAID array. And when you deploy a drive mix, install drives of lower capacity first.

  3. You can install a 2.5-inch solid-state/SAS/SATA drive in a 3.5-inch hard disk drive bay.

  4. When mixing NVMe/SAS/SATA drives in one system, install NVMe drives in a descending bay sequence order, 9 → 8 →7...; and SAS/SATA drives in an ascending bay sequence order, 0 → 1 → 2....

  5. Mixing EDSFF, U.2 or U.3 drives in one RAID array is not supported.

Special notes​

  1. For the server models with a single type or mixed types of drives, take 10 x 2.5'' AnyBay drives for instance:

    • The installation order of a single type of drives (SAS/SATA/NVMe) should be: front drive bay 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7 → 8 → 9.

    • The installation order of mixed types of drives should be: SAS/SATA installed from front drive bay 0 → 1 → 2..., and NVMe installed from front drive bay 9 → 8 →7 → 6 → 5→ 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 → 0.

  2. For the server models with rear drives installed, take 8 x 2.5'' SAS/SATA front drives and 2 x 2.5'' SAS/SATA rear drives for instance:

    Drives can be installed to rear drive bay 16 → 17 first, and then front drive bay 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7.

  3. When ThinkSystem M.2 NVMe 2-Bay RAID Enablement Kit is installed, the 7mm SATA drive cannot be installed.

  4. ThinkSystem M.2 NVMe 2-Bay RAID Enablement Kit cannot be installed into the 4 x 3.5'' chassis.

  5. Tri-mode RAID cards support U.3 NVMe SSDs but do not support U.2 NVMe SSDs

  6. When 7mm drives are installed, two PCIe adapters can be installed on the rear at most.

  7. When a Gen 3 M.2 SATA 2-Bay Enablement Kit is selected, at least one M.2 disk needs to be installed.

  8. When rear 2x2.5 SSDs are installed, only one PCIe adapter can be installed on the rear.