What is the maximum hard drive capacity that can be installed and recognized by Snow Leopard Server on an Xserve Early 2008. I have a 3TB HGST 73000k drive mounted in a carrier and I can only access 2.2TB of space. Is that the limit?
Xserve, OS X Server, Snow Leopard Server
I put a 2TB drive in an XServe carrier a few months back. I could not find any official information on the upper limit that an XServe drive carrier can handle. 2TB may be the limit. One thing you could consider would be to add a PCI card for esata access such as the NewerTech PCIE6GRS. This may allow you to add the larger capacity drive to your setup. You might talk to the staff at OWC and get thier thoughts on capacity. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXPCIE6GRS/
It looks like this card may be compatible with a 2008 XServe: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html
Thank you for your input Don. I should know that if it isn't listed in the specs then it isn't supported and don't go there. I already am very familiar with OWC and the PCI cards are an option I considered. I support the server for a school and have a limited budget so I always try the least expensive route if possible. I had the carrier available and thought I would give it a try. The enterprise class drive wasn't cheap but I knew it was the best choice for a server. Thinking ahead to the post Xserve days, I was hoping to find a thunderbolt drive with firewire 800 so we could use it now with the Xserve and also be ready for the thunderbolt MacPro that Apple surely must have in the works, which could be our next server. Thanks again for your thoughts.
Good to think ahead. Things change so fast. The new MacPro will be nice. I did find some XServe specs in the free application 'MacTracker'. It lists the top limit for an ADC at 1TB. I guess I got lucky with the 2TB Seagate Constellation 3Gbps drive.
According to http://support.apple.com/kb/sp10, the largest SATA drive is 3TB:
Storage
Three independent hot-plug drive bays with support for SATA or SAS drives; support for up to 3TB of hot-plug internal storage1,2 using the following Apple Drive Modules:
"support for up to 3TB ... using the following Apple Drive Modules:"
this means 3 x 1TB in each drive bay, not 3TB in one bay
Xserve Early 2008 HD Capacity Max.
