SAS and SATA together in a RAID

Question

I have to build a new server with SAS drives for RAID 10. However, I have 2TBs of storage on 2x1TB SATA drives.

Would it be possible to still plugin 2 SATA drives even if I run a hardware raid 10 with the OS on SAS drives?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. Connect the SAS drives in their current array, and add in the RAID hardware card (assuming it fits) into your server. Connect the SATA cables up, and boot up your server.

Assuming the SATA drives have a partition already on them, they should show up in you /dev/ folder (or My Computer, depending on the OS), but you may need to check the configuration.

Answer 2

You can not mix SAS and SATA drives in the same array. The drives for each array must be of the same type. You can have different types in different arrays.

i.e. (numbers of disks not fixed, just an example)

You can not have

• Array 0: 3 x SATA + 2 SAS

You can have:

• Array 0: 5 x SATA
• Array 1: 5 x SAS

Answer 3

SAS controllers are able to read SATA drives. So as long as you don't mix them in a RAID volume, it should work. However, it's entirely dependent on your RAID controller.

It can't hurt to try.