Newbie: NetApp HDD Trays / Caddy(s)

MJASHLEY9104 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:53:25 GMT

Hi Folks,

I read the wonderful NetApp Basic Concepts document! Great help for filling in some blanks.

I'm trying to find out what the differences are in some of the drive caddies. I can't find any information.

For instance, I have an Hitatchi 500gb SATA drive in a NetApp tray/caddy that is labeled 500A.

I have another SATA 320gb drive in a caddy labeled 320A. These also have dongle cards in them to plug into our DKS14MK2's.

Is there any difference between these caddies? Or is it just for drive organization purposes?

I'm thinking the only difference aside from the label might be in the dongle cards?

I can't check the dongle cards nor the caddies right now, because they are already running.

I'm wondering if I run a 500gb SATA in a 320A tray, would it have some issues - or if I need to pay attention to the dongle card, etc.

We have various caddies for FC, SAS, all with a unique identifier.

Thanks for the help.

Newbie: NetApp HDD Trays / Caddy(s)

shaunjurr — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:49:33 GMT

Hi,

Basically, it's pretty simple. The caddies are constructed so that you can't put a drive in a non-compatible shelf. The numeric label is just to help you recognize the size. Sometimes they will have different colors (silver vs. black) for some speed differences between drives of the same size when those differences exist.

The "dongles" are just there to deal with missing "hot-swap" connectors on certain drive types, (P)ATA/SATA .

topic Newbie: NetApp HDD Trays / Caddy(s) in ONTAP Hardware

Newbie: NetApp HDD Trays / Caddy(s)

Newbie: NetApp HDD Trays / Caddy(s)