Drive backplane installation rules and order

This section contains information on the drive backplane installation rules and order.

Server models with 2.5-inch drive bays

The server supports up to six 2.5-inch drive backplanes.

Figure 1. Backplane numbering
Drive backplane numbering

Table 1. Drive backplane and corresponding drive bays
Drive backplane	Drive bay	Supported drive backplanes	Supported drives
`1` Backplane 1	0 to 7	2.5-inch AnyBay 8-bay drive backplane 2.5-inch SAS/SATA 8-bay drive backplane	2.5-inch SAS/SATA/NVMe drives 2.5-inch SAS/SATA drives
`2` Backplane 2	8 to 15
`3` Backplane 3	16 to 23
`4` Backplane 4	24 to 31	2.5-inch SAS/SATA 8-bay drive backplane	2.5-inch SAS/SATA drives
`5` Backplane 5	32 to 39
`6` Backplane 6	40 to 47

Note

An AnyBay backplane supports SAS, SATA, and NVMe drives. AnyBay backplanes are used as NVMe backplanes when no RAID/HBA adapters are installed.

Table 2. Drive backplane installation order
Installation priority	Backplane type	Backplane placement priority
1	2.5-inch AnyBay 8-bay drive backplane	1, 3, 2
2	2.5-inch SAS/SATA 8-bay drive backplane	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Note

The server supports the following backplane combinations:

1 backplane: 1 x SAS/SATA backplane or 1 x AnyBay backplane
2 backplanes: 2 x SAS/SATA backplanes, 2 x AnyBay backplanes, or combination of both
3 backplanes: 3 x SAS/SATA backplanes, 3 x AnyBay backplanes, or combinations of both
6 backplanes: 6 x SAS/SATA backplanes, or combinations of SAS/SATA backplanes and AnyBay backplanes
A maximum of 3 AnyBay backplanes are supported.

For detailed information about storage configurations, see Storage configurations.

The server supports up to eight E3.S backplanes (backplanes 1 to 8) and three 2.5-inch drive backplanes (backplanes 9 to 11).

Figure 2. Backplane numbering
Drive backplane numbering

Table 3. Drive backplane and corresponding drive bays
Drive backplane	E3.S 1T bay	E3.S 2T bay	2.5-inch SAS/SATA bay
`1` Backplane 1	0 to 3	1, 3
`2` Backplane 2	4 to 7	5, 7
`3` Backplane 3	8 to 11	9, 11
`4` Backplane 4	12 to 15	13, 15
`5` Backplane 5	16 to 19	17, 19
`6` Backplane 6	20 to 23	21, 23
`7` Backplane 7	24 to 27	25, 27
`8` Backplane 8	28 to 31	29, 31
`9` Backplane 9			32 to 39
`10` Backplane 10			40 to 47
`11` Backplane 11			48 to 55

Note

Table 4. Drive backplane installation order
Backplane type	Backplane quantity	Backplane placement priority
E3.S backplane for E3.S 1T bays	2	1, 2
	4	1, 2, 3, 4
	6	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
	8	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
E3.S backplane for E3.S 2T bays	8	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
2.5-inch SAS/SATA 8-bay drive backplane	1	9
	2	9, 10
	3	9, 10, 11

For detailed information about storage configurations, see Storage configurations.

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