User`s guide

Chapter 5: Installing the Controller and Disk Drives ● 38
7 Thread the tie-backs through the slots on the
cap card and fix to the selected location on the
computer chassis. The tie-backs should
completely encircle the cap card to ensure that
it is held in place securely, as shown at right. Be
careful not to restrict air-flow through your
system.
8 Connect your computer’s disk activity LED
cable to the LED connector on the controller (
marked on the figures in About Your RAID
Controller
on page 15 ) .
Ensure that the positive lead of the LED cable (usually a red wire or a wire marked with a
red stripe) is attached to pin 1.
9 Connect your RAID controller’s I2C connector to an I2C connector on an internal
backplane or enclosure, using an I2C cable. For more connection details, see About Your
RAID Controller on page 15.
10 Prepare and install your internal disk drives, following the instructions in Connecting Disk
Drives to Your Controllers on page 38.
If you are not installing internal disk drives, close your computer cabinet, reattach the
power cord, then continue with Connecting External Devices on page 42.
Connecting Disk Drives to Your Controllers
You can connect SAS disk drives, SATA disk drives, SATA Solid State Drives (SSD), and
Adaptec MaxIQ Solid State Drives to your SAS RAID controller. (See www.adaptec.com/
compatibility for a list of compatible disk drives.) 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 31 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 68 for more information.
You have two connection options:
● To connect directly to the controller, see the following section.
● To connect to a backplane, see page 39.
To connect Adaptec MaxIQ SSDs or other SSDs to your controller, see page 40.
Connecting Directly to the 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 71.)
1 Install your internal SAS or SATA disk drives, following the instructions in your system’s
documentation.