Adaptec 58300 - Manual (Page 25)

Chapter 5: Installing the HostRAID Controller and Disk Drives ●
25
Connecting Disk Drives to HostRAID Controllers
You can connect SAS disk drives, SATA disk drives, or a combination of both to your
HostRAID controller. There are no jumpers or switches to set before installation.
If you plan to build a bootable array using internal disk drives, ensure you install at least the
minimum number disk drives required to support the RAID level you want. See
page 58 for
more information.
Note: Although you can connect both SAS and SATA disk drives to your SAS controller,
Adaptec recommends that you not combine SAS and SATA disk drives within the same
array or logical drive. See
page 55 for more information.
You have two connection options:
● To connect directly to the controller, see page 25 .
● To connect to a backplane, see page 26 .
Connecting Directly to the HostRAID Controller
In a direct-attach connection, SAS or SATA disk drives are connected directly to a SAS card
with SAS cables.The number of direct-attached disk drives is limited to four per internal SAS
connector. (For more information about direct-attach connections, see
page 56 .)
1 Install your internal SAS or SATA disk drives, following the instructions in your system’s
documentation.
2 Use internal SAS cables to attach the disk drives to the controller.
3 When all internal disk drives have been installed and attached to the controller, close your
computer cabinet, reattach the power cord, then continue with
Installing the Controller to a
SAS Expander on page 27 .
SATA disk drives attached to
controller with fan-out cable
External
SAS cable
External SAS connector