82 Installing System Components
Hard Drives
Your system supports up to six 2.5-inch SAS, SATA, or SSD hard drives. See
Figure3-1.
• Mixed hard-drive configurations of SAS and SATA drives are allowed. In
this configuration, two SAS drives must be installed in hard-drive slots 0
and 1 only. The remaining slots can have SATA drives installed.
•
SSD hard-drive configurations require an integrated PERC storage
controller, and all drives must be SSD drives.
All hard drives are installed at the front of the system and connect to the
system board through the SAS backplane board. Hard drives are supplied in
special hot-swappable drive carriers that fit in the hard-drive bays.
CAUTION: Before attempting to remove or install a drive while the system is
running, see the documentation for the integrated storage controller card to
ensure that the host adapter is configured correctly to support hot-swap drive
removal and insertion.
CAUTION: Do not turn off or reboot your system while the drive is being formatted.
Doing so can cause a drive failure.
NOTE: Use only drives that have been tested and approved for use with the SAS
backplane board.
When you format a hard drive, allow enough time for the formatting to be
completed. Be aware that high-capacity hard drives can take a number of
hours to format.

Removing a Drive Blank

NOTE: To maintain proper system cooling, all empty hard-drive bays must have
drive blanks installed.
1Remove the front bezel. See
"
Removing and Replacing the Optional
Front Bezel
."
2Grasp the front of the hard-drive blank, press the release lever on the
right side, and
slide the blank out until it is free of the drive bay
.