User`s guide

Chapter 5: Installing the Controller and Disk Drives ● 33
7 Prepare and install your internal disk drives, following the instructions for your type of
controller:
● For SAS RAID controllers, see page 33.
● For SATA RAID controllers, see page 34.
● For SCSI RAID controllers, see page 35.
If you are not installing internal disk drives, close your computer cabinet, reattach the
power cord, then continue with Connecting External Devices on page 35.
Connecting Disk Drives to SAS RAID Controllers
You can connect SAS disk drives, SATA disk drives, or a combination of both to your SAS RAID
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 27 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 60 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 34.
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 63.)
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. (SATA disk drives are
shown in the following figure.)
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 Connecting External
Devices on page 35.
SATA disk drives attached to
controller with fan-out cable