When working with legacy Dell PowerEdge servers like the 2950 or 2650, drive compatibility isn't always straightforward. The good news is that SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) follows industry standards, but there are important considerations:

• Physical compatibility: 2.5" or 3.5" form factor must match your chassis
• SAS generation: PowerEdge 2950 supports both SAS-1 (3Gbps) and SAS-2 (6Gbps)
• Firmware requirements: Some drives may need firmware updates

While Dell typically recommends their certified drives, third-party SAS drives can work. Here's what to check:

# Example disk check command in Linux
sudo lsscsi -g
# Expected output format:
#[0:0:0:0]    disk    SEAGATE  ST300MM0006    0001  /dev/sda 
#                         /dev/sg0

Key parameters to verify:

• Drive rotation speed (10k or 15k RPM)
• Sector size (typically 512b or 4k)
• Power requirements (check wattage against backplane specs)

From hands-on experience, these drives have worked reliably in PowerEdge 2950:

The server may log these messages with incompatible drives:

# Example dmesg output for drive issues
[ 1234.567890] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1234.567891] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <> ASCQ=0x81

Common solutions for these issues include:

• Updating the HBA firmware
• Adjusting timeout settings in the RAID controller
• Using a different drive bay (some backplanes have quirky behavior)

The price difference you observed ($150 vs $500) typically reflects:

• Enterprise-grade vs. consumer-grade SAS
• Manufacturer certification costs
• Warranty and support differences

For development/testing environments, budget drives often work fine. For production, consider certified refurbished Dell drives (part numbers like 0F238F or 07NYF2) which offer better compatibility at mid-range prices.

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When dealing with legacy Dell PowerEdge servers like the 2950 or 2650 purchased without drives, many admins wonder about SAS drive compatibility. The short answer: most standard SAS drives will physically work, but there are important technical considerations.

1. SAS Generation Support:
PowerEdge 2950/2650 support SAS 1.0 (3Gbps). While SAS 2.0/3.0 drives are backward compatible, you might need to check:

# Example PowerShell to check HBA capabilities (if OS installed)
Get-PnpDevice -Class 'SCSIAdapter' | Select-Object FriendlyName, HardwareID

2. Drive Firmware Considerations:
Dell-branded drives contain custom firmware that enables:

• Full management through OpenManage
• Predictive failure reporting
• Optimal performance tuning

For non-Dell SAS drives, you'll typically need to:

1. Check the drive's physical size (2.5" or 3.5") matches your chassis
2. Verify the backplane supports the drive's speed (3/6/12Gbps)
3. Potentially disable strict hardware checking in BIOS:

# Example iDRAC settings modification via racadm
racadm set BIOS.IntegratedDevices.SASHardwareCompliance Disabled

When using third-party drives, always conduct:

While $150 drives may work initially, consider:

• Enterprise-grade drives ($500 range) offer:
  • Higher MTBF (1.2M+ hours vs 700K)
  • Better vibration resistance
  • TLER support for RAID
• Budget drives may work for:
  • Lab environments
  • Non-critical storage
  • Temporary systems

For production use in PowerEdge 2950/2650:

# Recommended drive specs
Capacity: 300GB-600GB (optimal for these controllers)
Speed: 10K or 15K RPM
Interface: SAS 6Gbps (backward compatible to 3Gbps)

Always check the server's PERC controller firmware version as older revisions may have stricter compatibility requirements.