Maximum SATA disk size for use with Dell XX2X2 RAID controller?

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Pyromancer

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Oct 10, 2017
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What is the maximum size of SATA disk that will be recognised by a Dell XX2X2 RAID card for the C6100 blade server? I gather this is a version of an LSI MegaRAID controller.

I'm putting a system together based on second hand Dell C6100 servers running a mix of VMware and Xenserver (on different blades). I already have two machines up and running but these have single disks per blade and no RAID. I want to RAID the next machine, I gather there is a choice of the Y8Y69 which is SATA II and the SATA III XX2X2.

I obtained a test blade complete with the XX2X2 installed and using 3 x 500 gig SSDs proved the RAID and VMware compatibility - in RAID 1e it provides 750 gig from the 1500 gig available.

But what is the largest size of disk it will recognise? I've always believed in going as large as possible when buying hard disks and I can see 10TB disks at eBuyer, but on a previous occasion the on-board SATA on a fairly modern 1u Dell server, when fitted with 4TB disks, only saw them as 2TB, so I don't want to waste money on large disks that then won't be seen.

My existing C6100s, with the disks running directly off the motherboard SATA controllers, have 3TB disks and see them as such, I gather that's the limit for the motherboard controllers.

Extensive Googling has failed to find either the answer or a technical manual for the cards, and the main c6100 technical manual I've downloaded doesn't state what the limits are.

Does anyone know what the disk size limits are for the XX2X2, and for completeness, the older Y8Y69 too?
 

Pyromancer

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Mishka

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Apr 30, 2017
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If it is an LSI 2008 then I can tell you they work with 8TB+ but you need to firmware update them if it doesnt see over 2TB had it on my H200
 

Pyromancer

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For the benefit of anyone else with the same question, I gather the full answer is: "As long as the firmware on the controller can handle more than 2TB, the card should work with any size of disk now in production."

I went with 3 x 4TB disks and RAID 1e and got the expected 6TB (5.45TB formatted) overall RAID volume.