Max capacity of an Xserve3,1 SAS drive tray?

[RealKGB]

I recently picked up an Xserve3,1 dual CPU model and three SAS drive trays (it had none and I found a set of three for $25). I'm looking into storage for it currently.
According to everything I can find online, SATA drives are capped at 2.2TB. Full stop. Putting in a higher capacity drive results in only 2.2TB being seen.
However, I've seen some people mention that SAS drives can go larger - I did see someone say they have a 4TB SAS drive working, but that's it.
Is there any definitive info on it? My guess is it's the same cap as a GPT-partitioned disk, or ~9.4 zettabytes, but I just want to make sure before I go out and buy some 6TB SAS drives.

Thank you!

 

[willowthewisp]

I recently picked up an Xserve3,1 dual CPU model and three SAS drive trays (it had none and I found a set of three for $25). I'm looking into storage for it currently.
According to everything I can find online, SATA drives are capped at 2.2TB. Full stop. Putting in a higher capacity drive results in only 2.2TB being seen.
However, I've seen some people mention that SAS drives can go larger - I did see someone say they have a 4TB SAS drive working, but that's it.
Is there any definitive info on it? My guess is it's the same cap as a GPT-partitioned disk, or ~9.4 zettabytes, but I just want to make sure before I go out and buy some 6TB SAS drives.

Thank you!

Can confirm that SAS-drives with 16TB work without issue - after modifying the had connector (SAS-3).
SATA drives with a capacity over 2.2TB are only seen by the LSI 1064e backplane when a SAS to SATA interposer is used. Then SATA drives use SATA-2 protocol ! With 2.5” SATA SSDs there is enough space, with classic LFF hdds it won’t work (not enough space in the caddies).

 

[RealKGB]

Can confirm that SAS-drives with 16TB work without issue - after modifying the had connector (SAS-3).

Is that the pin taping thing I saw mentioned?

 

[willowthewisp]

Is that the pin taping thing I saw mentioned?

Exactly. Otherwise the drive won’t show up.
On one of my xserves (3.1->MP5.1/144.0.0.0.0, 2x5675, WX4150GOP, blue HP pcb, PLX8742, Chelsio T580, macOS 12.6, OCLP) I use 3 x 4 TB Samsung 870evo with NetApp/ LSI SAS-SATA interposer boards. Drives are seen with their full capacity, deliver ~265-270Mb/s.
Had to grind the interposer pcb a bit, was 1,7 mm too wide.
Might be possible to solder the interposer to a normal SATA caddy. Then a standard SATA HDD could fit.

 

[willowthewisp]

Is that the pin taping thing I saw mentioned?

For the ssd solution I used these. https://www.ebay.de/itm/185481071881
Company is located in Poland/Europe, they are competent, replied nearly instantly and delivered to Germany in 4 days.

 

[Hrududu]

Can confirm that SAS-drives with 16TB work without issue - after modifying the had connector (SAS-3).
SATA drives with a capacity over 2.2TB are only seen by the LSI 1064e backplane when a SAS to SATA interposer is used. Then SATA drives use SATA-2 protocol ! With 2.5” SATA SSDs there is enough space, with classic LFF hdds it won’t work (not enough space in the caddies).

By chance, this is really useful information! I came into some ownership of some 4TB SAS drives the other day, but wasn't sure what to do with them thinking my 3,1 wouldn't make use of them. It's been running as my Plex server with its original 1TB drives, but space is getting cramped. SAS backplane comes in handy.

 

[RealKGB]

Exactly. Otherwise the drive won’t show up.
On one of my xserves (3.1->MP5.1/144.0.0.0.0, 2x5675, WX4150GOP, blue HP pcb, PLX8742, Chelsio T580, macOS 12.6, OCLP) I use 3 x 4 TB Samsung 870evo with NetApp/ LSI SAS-SATA interposer boards. Drives are seen with their full capacity, deliver ~265-270Mb/s.
Had to grind the interposer pcb a bit, was 1,7 mm too wide.
Might be possible to solder the interposer to a normal SATA caddy. Then a standard SATA HDD could fit.

Do you know what I would mod? I can't find a guide... though maybe I'm just searching the wrong thing

EDIT:
Found it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/xserve/comments/15pd2la