Enclosure location guidelines

Use these guidelines to plan the location of a control enclosure and any expansion enclosures that attach to it.

Each control enclosure contains two node canisters, forming an I/O group. The guidelines apply on an I/O group by I/O group basis.

Note: A mounting rail kit is provided with each control enclosure and expansion enclosure. Each rail can expand to accommodate a range of rack depths, which are measured between the front and rear mounting posts of the rack. However, because there are differences between some types of mounting rails, be sure to use the specific rail kit that is supplied with each control or expansion enclosure.
Note: A SAS chain is the set of enclosures connected via a single SAS ports on each node canister in the control enclosure.
Plan for one of the following types of installation.
  • Control enclosure only

    The control enclosure requires four standard units of space in the rack. If you plan to add expansion enclosures in the future, follow the guidelines for a control enclosure and one or more expansion enclosures.

  • Control enclosure and one or more expansion enclosures
    • Position the control enclosure in the center of the rack to have shorter cabling runs. Balance the number of expansion enclosures above and below the control enclosure.
    • Position the enclosures together. Avoid adding other equipment between enclosures.
    • Position the enclosures in the rack so that you can easily view them and access them for servicing. This action also allows the rack to remain stable and allows two or more people to install and remove the enclosures.
    • Should the configuration span multiple racks, locate the racks next to one another to have shorter cabling runs.
    • Attach no more than three 2U expansion enclosures or one 5U expansion enclosure to each of the SAS ports (port 1 or port 3) of the node canister.