Connecting The Msa 2050 Array To Expansion Disk Enclosures; Supported Expansion Disk Enclosures; Disk Enclosure Connection Guidelines; Fault-Tolerant And Straight-Through Disk Enclosure Cabling - HPE MSA 2050 Configuration Manual

Connecting the MSA 2050 array to expansion
disk enclosures
To connect the MSA 2050 array to expansion disk enclosures, connect a Mini-SAS to Mini-SAS cable from
the SAS expansion port on each MSA 2050 controller to an I/O module in the disk enclosure. Cabling varies,
depending on which of the two supported cabling schemes you use:
• Fault-tolerant cabling
• Straight-through cabling
For more information about these cabling schemes, see
For more information about your MSA 2050, see the HPE MSA 2050 Best Practices guide, available on the
HPE website http://www.hpe.com/support/msa2050.

Supported expansion disk enclosures

The MSA 2050 supports the following disk enclosures:
Disk enclosure model
HPE MSA 2040 LFF Disk Enclosure
HPE D2700 Disk Enclosure (supported in MSA
1040/2040 upgrade scenarios only)
HPE MSA 2050 SFF Disk Enclosure
HPE MSA 2050 LFF Disk Enclosure
NOTE:
For more information on D2700 disk enclosure connectivity, see the HPE MSA 2040 Cable
Configuration Guide. Support for D2700 is only available for MSA 1040/2040 upgrades.

Disk enclosure connection guidelines

• Expansion disk enclosures can be connected to an operational MSA 2050 array.
• Use only supported cables. For more information, see the HPE MSA 2050 QuickSpecs, available on the
HPE website: http://www.hpe.com/support/msa2050.
• Mini-SAS to Mini-SAS 0.5 m (1.64 ft) cables are provided with the MSA 2050, and D2700 disk enclosures
(one for each I/O module).
• The maximum length cable supported for connecting disk enclosures is 2 m (6.56 ft).
• Cables longer than those supplied with the disk enclosure must be purchased separately. For a list of
cables available from HPE, see the HPE MSA 2050 QuickSpecs.
• Eight enclosures maximum (including the array enclosure) are supported.

Fault-tolerant and straight-through disk enclosure cabling

MSA 2050 firmware supports both fault-tolerant and straight-through SAS cabling.
Fault-tolerant cabling allows any disk enclosure to fail or be removed while maintaining access to other
enclosures. When connecting multiple disk enclosures, use fault-tolerant cabling to ensure the highest level of
fault tolerance.
Description
12-disk LFF enclosure
25-disk SFF enclosure
24-disk SFF enclosure
12-disk LFF enclosure

Connecting the MSA 2050 array to expansion disk enclosures

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