How many MSA500 can I link together

[Cheryl Matrasko]

I have a server that is need of disk space
How many MSA500's can I link together, completely filled with 14 x 300 GB Hard drives in each?
I have 2 completely filled MSA500s with 300 GB drives.
Is there a max on how many I can hook up together? Any negatives to adding more?
Is MSA1000 upgrade better ?
Thanks Cheryl

[TTr]

Based on the SCSI I/O module types for the MSA500, you can not cascade them (daisy chain) as you would do with standard SCSI devices. The extra SCSI ports on the MSA500 are for multipathing and for connecting multiple servers to share storage either in single server mode or in a cluster.

So to add another MSA500 to your server you would need to add another SCSI controller on your server.

The two MAS500 that you already have are they attached with one SCSI interface or two?

With two interfaces you get more throughput to your server but then you need double the number of SCSI adapters on the server (or use dual SCSI port adapters).

If you have a fast server and have available I/O slots you can add more SCSI controllers and more MSA500.

The MSA1000 upgrade is a better option if you have a new server that can take advantage of two fiber HBAs. The MSA1000 can pump more data out of the disks and to the server and is more expandable.

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

the MSA500 wasn't designed as an expandable storage. It was designed to be a shares storage for two or four cluster nodes. If you want to add more enclosures, you need to upgrade it to an MSA1000.

In your case it's the best way to upgrade one MSA500 to a MSA1000 and add a MSA30 to the upgrades MSA1000. Then you have all disks in one storage and you can connect servers over FC-HBAs to the MSA.

You will need:

- Upgradekit for MSA500
- FC-Switches (at least one)
- one MSA30 SB
- FC-HBAs for the servers

Best regards,
Patrick