Dell 4100/200, 4100/180 manual Installing Drives in the Internal Bays 10-1

Chapter 10

Installing Drives in the Internal Bays

This chapter describes how to install and configure small computer system interface (SCSI) hard-disk drives in the computer’s six internal drive bays. (See Chapter 9, “Installing Drives in the External Bays,” for information on installing SCSI CD-ROM drives and tape drives in the external drive bays.)

Dell PowerEdge 4100 systems include a SCSI backplane board, which greatly simplifies cabling and configuration for SCSI hard-disk drives. All SCSI identification (ID) and termination for SCSI hard-disk drives are configured by the SCSI backplane board, rather than on individual drives.

In the standard Dell PowerEdge 4100 system configura- tion, the Ultra/Wide SCSI host adapter on the system board controls the SCSI backplane board. When used in combination with an optional PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller host adapter card, the SCSI backplane board allows you to remove and insert hard-disk drives without shutting down the system—an invaluable feature for servers that contain important data and programs for an entire network of users. You can replace a failed drive without forcing all users on the network to log off and lose valuable time and possibly data. See “Removing and

Inserting a SCSI Hard-Disk Drive With the System Run- ning” found later in this chapter for details.

CAUTION: Removing and installing hard-disk drives with the system running is not supported for systems without a PowerEdge Expandable RAID Con- troller host adapter card. Removing a drive will result in a loss of data.

Figure 10-1 illustrates the internal drive bays, SCSI back- plane board, and the Ultra/Wide SCSI cable. The Ultra/ Wide SCSI cable has two connectors:

•The connector at one end attaches to the SCSI host adapter connector labeled “SCSI BACKPLANE” on the system board or to an optional SCSI host adapter card such as the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Con- troller host adapter card.

•The connector at the other end of the cable attaches to the connector labeled “SCSI” on the SCSI back- plane board.

Installing Drives in the Internal Bays 10-1