C H A P T E R 1 |
The following terminology is used in this document.
The Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module is a disk module for the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System.
As a disk module, the Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module does not contain a CPU or Service Processor. It does, however, contain SAS expanders, which are switching circuits that can connect disks in complex patterns.
A fully loaded Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module consists of eight SAS disks, with each disk connected to SAS expanders. The SAS expanders, in turn, connect to a Sun Blade 6000 Modular System chassis’ SAS-NEMs.
The disk module works only with a SAS-NEM. It does not work with a NEM that lacks SAS connectivity. For the disk module to function, there must be a SAS-NEM in at least slot NEM 0.
FIGURE 1-1 shows a schematic view of the disk module. Each SAS port connects to a single SAS-NEM module.
Note - Solid State Drives (SSD) are supported for use in the disk module. SSDs perform as SATA disk drives and are single-ported devices. This means that they do not have the capability of providing alternate connection paths. They connect only through the SAS expander on the disk blade that is wired to SAS-NEM 0. Be sure to follow the rule for mixing SAS and SATA drives described in Compatible Disk Drives. |
Caution - If you are using SATA drives and SAS-NEM 0 fails, you lose all connectivity to your SATA drives. |
FIGURE 1-2 shows the interior of the disk module, fully loaded with eight SAS disks.
Figure Legend
1 Disk drives
2 SAS Expanders
3 Connectors to chassis midplane
The disks on a Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module are controlled by a SAS host bus adapter on the server module. This adapter can be either an on-board chip or a RAID Expansion Module card. FIGURE 1-3 shows the key components of a server that are used to control disks. Server modules can have either no disks, or up to four disks of their own. The SAS host bus adapter on the server module controls its own disks as well as disks on the disk module. The disks on the disk module are connected to the SAS host bus adapter through two SAS-NEM modules, providing a dual path to each SAS disk.
The Sun Blade 6000 Disk Module can interoperate with any one of the supported server blades: X6220, X6240, X6250, X6270, X6440, X6450, T6300, T6320, and T6340.
The server blades and disk blades must be placed in the chassis in pairs. The pairs must be in slots 0+1, 2+3, 4+5, 6+7, or 8+9. No other combination of slots can be used. When (facing the front of the system chassis) the server blade is on the left, a server blade in slot n (n is an even number) sees its own on-blade disks and all the disks in a disk blade in slot n+1, but no other disks.
FIGURE 1-4 shows a Sun Blade 6000 Modular System chassis, fully loaded with server modules and disk modules:
Counting from the left, server blades are in slots 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. Disk blades are in slots 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9.
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