Sas Cabling; Physical Drive Support; Third Party Hardware Support; Server Support - Dell PowerVault MD1120 Optimization Manual

A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR OPTIMIZING DELL™ POWERVAULT™ MD1XXX FAMILY SAS SOLUTION
•
LSI 1078 SAS RAID-on-Chip
•
256MB or 512MB of customized DDR2 667MHz, Error-Correcting Code (ECC) cache memory
•
3 Gbps maximum speed for each SAS lane
•
Two external x4 ("by four") SAS ports, each aggregating 4 SAS lanes for a total bandwidth per
port of 12.0 Gbps
•
x8 PCI E host interface for a total bandwidth of 32.0 Gbps
•
Up to 72 hours of intelligent, transportable, battery-backed, cache memory (24-hour back-up
for 512MB memory)
For detailed information on the PERC 5/E and PERC 5/E controllers, see section 6.

SAS Cabling

The PowerVault MD1xxx Family storage enclosures and the PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E controllers
support industry standard 3.0 Gbps SAS cables in 0.6m (meter), 1m, 2m, and 4m cable lengths.
Each cable supports x4 SAS connectors to deliver up to 12.0 Gbps of total bandwidth from the host
to the enclosure. Only Dell-qualified cables are supported for connecting the PowerVault MD1xxx
Family storage enclosures to the PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E controllers.

Physical Drive Support

The PowerVault MD1xxx Family storage expansion enclosures supports the latest SAS physical
disks, currently specified as 3.0 Gbps SAS. SAS solutions from Dell include both 10,000 RPM and
15,000 RPM spindle speeds and a variety of capacities to allow customers the maximum flexibility.
The PowerVault MD1000 enclosure also supports 7200 RPM SATA drives, allowing for higher
capacity than SAS drives.
For the latest information on support for specific physical disks, please refer to the respective
PowerVault MD1000 and MD1120 System Support Matrices at the following links:
For MD1000 -
For MD1120 -

Third Party Hardware Support

To provide the best possible customer experience, Dell supports only hardware purchased direct
from Dell for the PowerVault MD1xxx Family and PERC 5/E and PERC 6/E controller. Dell
developed server and storage solutions include many thousands person-hours of engineering
testing and validation to ensure the highest product quality. For example, physical disks purchased
direct from Dell may include features not generally available to the rest of the industry. As such,
Dell supports only Dell tested and qualified hardware. Hardware purchased direct from Dell carries
the full Dell system warranty and ensures full compatibility. Materials purchased from third-party
vendors for use in Dell systems are not covered under Dell warranty and may not deliver an
acceptable customer experience.

Server Support

The PowerVault MD1xxx Family is supported on an broad line of Dell server systems. For the
latest information on support for specific servers, please refer to the respective PowerVault
MD1000 and MD1120 System Support Matrices at the following links:
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