Drive enclosure connection guidelines
• Expansion drive enclosures can be connected to an operational MSA Storage Array, see the
HPE MSA
1050/2050/2052 Best Practices Guide
.
• Mini-SAS to Mini-SAS 0.5 m (1.64 ft) cables are provided with all supported expansion Disk Enclosures.
• The maximum length cable supported for connecting drive enclosures is 2 m (6.56 ft).
• Cables longer than those supplied with the drive enclosure must be purchased separately. For a list of
cables available from HPE, see the
HPE MSA 1050 QuickSpecs
, available at
• The maximum number of enclosures supported with an MSA 1050 solution is four (one MSA 1050 and up
to three expansion drive enclosures).
Example MSA 1050 drive enclosure connections
MSA 1050 firmware supports both fault-tolerant and straight-through SAS cabling to cascaded drive
enclosures. For more information about these cabling schemes and for additional cabling examples, see the
HPE MSA 1050 Cabling Configuration Guide
.
Connect the MSA Controllers to data hosts
Direct-connect and switch-connect environments are supported. For direct-connect configurations, connect
cables from the MSA controller host ports to the host. For switch-connect configurations, connect cables from
the MSA controller host ports to the switch ports and from the switch ports to the hosts.
MSA 1050 connection guidelines
• No host interface cables are shipped with MSA 1050 Storage Systems. For a list of cables available from
HPE, see the
HPE MSA 1050 QuickSpecs
.
• In direct-connect deployments, connect each host to the same port on both of the MSA controllers.
• In switch-connect deployments, connect an MSA Controller A port and the corresponding MSA Controller
B port to one switch, and connect a second MSA Controller A port and the corresponding MSA Controller
B port to a separate switch.
Example MSA Controller host port
For cabling examples, including connecting directly to a server, see the
HPE MSA 1050 Cabling Configuration
Guide
.
Connect the MSA Controller to a remote management host (recommended)
A remote management host directly manages systems out-of-band over an Ethernet network.
If a remote management host is included in your environment, connect an RJ-45 Ethernet cable from the
network management port on each MSA 1050 controller to a switch that your management host can access
(preferably on the same subnet).
Connect two MSA storage systems to replicate volumes (optional)
HPE MSA Remote Snap Software is an optional licensed disaster-recovery utility that performs asynchronous
(batch) replication of block-level data from a volume on a primary MSA storage system to a secondary volume
on an independent MSA storage system. These two MSA Storage systems connect through switches and are
on the same fabric or network.
For more information about Remote Snap Software, including cabling requirements and user information, see
the
HPE MSA 1050 User Guide
, and
HPE MSA Remote Snap Whitepaper
.
Connect the MSA Controllers to data hosts
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