• Try to distribute an equal number of drives to all enclosures compatible with the drive type being
added. If an equal distribution is not possible, get as close as possible while still following the
guidelines for the drives.
• With a four-node configuration, the best practice is to attach the same number and type of drives to
each pair of controller nodes.
Small form factor (SFF) configuration
• SFF drives may be loaded into the "Storage Base enclosures", the "Upgrade Node Pair enclosure",
and the "2U SAS drive enclosure".
• SFF drives must be loaded in pairs of identical drives, beginning with the leftmost slot, slot 0, and
filling to the right, leaving no empty slots between drives.
Large form factor (LFF) configuration
• LFF drives may be loaded into the 4U SAS drive enclosure.
• LFF drives must be loaded in pairs of identical drives starting at the bottom of a column, leaving no
empty slots between drives in the column.
• Intermixing SSDs and spinning media in an LFF drive enclosure is allowed as long as each drive type
is installed in even pairs in the same column.
• It is permitted to have empty columns between columns containing drives. Different columns do not
have to contain the same number of drives.
• An all LFF drive configuration is permitted, leaving the Storage Base enclosure empty.
SFF drive loading and examples
SFF drives are loaded starting at bay 0, left to right, leaving no empty slots between drives. The drive
bays are numbered 0 through 23.
Figure 39: Drives bay numbering, SFF drives, SFF enclosure front view
Figure 40: Loading order, SFF drives, SFF enclosure front view
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