dell-percdell-poweredgestorage
I am thinking of stuffing twelve 6 TB drives on my R510 server. I know the latest firmware for the H700 controller support more than 2 TB. However, there is no clear documentation on what is the maximum disk size. The lack of documentation makes me assume that there is no limit, except for the highest space drive that can be made today.
Is this true?
According to the Dell documentation, the H700 integrated supports 0,1,5,6,10,50,60 and the modular supports 0,1,5,6,10. According to the technical guidebook, they both support a maximum number of 16 raid volumes.
Typically, when ordering Dell equipment, the configuration options do not necessarily reflect all possible configurations. However, if it is not specified, your RAID will not come preconfigured.
Well, doesn't the SSD choice depend a bit on your anticipated workload?
Really: Are SSD drives as reliable as mechanical drives (2013)?
But generically, you can attach just about anything to an LSI (Perc) controller and make it work. Should you? I mean, these are still consumer disks...
There's no TRIM support on the hardware RAID controller (it's not common). It's also not that important. You can just under-provision the drives. Create a Virtual Disk smaller than the capacity of the SSDs; e.g. don't allocation all of the space to the disks.
Best Answer
Part of me says to check with Dell... Specifically to see what they're selling as an option part for these servers and whether they've validated the use of 6TB disks. I'm assuming you wouldn't be using Dell-sourced drives, though...
In terms of compatibility, 2TB was the big issue for many controllers. Since the H700 has confirmed large-drive support (>2TB), there's a strong likelihood that they will work. This depends on the specific disks you use, of course. Some of the drive manufacturers have controller compatibility lists as well. So if you have a drive in mind, check to see if it supports your H700.