The Xserve features next-generation hot-pluggable Serial ATA Apple Drive Modules and offers up to 3TB of storage in three hot-swap hard drive bays.

Overview

The Apple Drive Module (ADM) is a hot-pluggable hard drive in a special drive carrier module designed for easy server upgradeability and maintenance. Apple Serial ATA Drive Modules are available in capacities up to 1TB and operate at 7200 rpm. The 80GB drive is equipped with 8MB of disk cache. The 1TB drive uses perpendicular recording technology to achieve greater capacity while increasing performance and is equipped with 32MB disk cache. Both drives are 24x7 server-class rated and are ideal for applications needing capacity and great storage value with excellent performance.

Using up to three drive modules, the Xserve can be configured from 80GB to 3TB of internal storage. Unpopulated bays ship with a blank drive carrier which can be replaced with a drive module at any time - even if the server is running - so its easy to add storage capacity as your server needs grow.

Each ADM has two LED activity lights - one indicating drive activity and one indicating drive status. All Apple Drive Modules support SMART - Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology - allowing the hardware monitoring tools including with Xserve to monitor the status of each hard drive and report pre-failure warnings before problems occur.

Software and Hardware RAID options

Mac OS X Server includes AppleRAID, providing RAID 0 and 1 support through software, allowing you to increase either data redundancy or performance. Xserve features on-line rebuilding of RAID 1 volumes and is able to boot from RAID volumes. Choose any combination of mirroring or striping across the three drive bays. RAID configurations require a minimum of two ADM hard drives. For increased protection and performance, add the Xserve RAID card to your Xserve, which provides hardware RAID 0, 1 and 5 with 256MB of cache and a 72-hour cache battery backup.

Serial ATA hard drives

Serial ATA hard drives combine low cost with excellent performance. Serial ATA drives features a point-to-point interconnect to that each drive is electrically isolated from the other and multiple drives don't compete for bandwidth. The drives have 8MB or 32MB of disk cache, operate at 7,200 revolutions per minute (rpm) and use a protocol that enables fast data transfer to and from the hard drive -- 1.5 gigabytes of data per second.

Apple Drive Module Serial ATA Compatibility

These Serial ATA Apple Drive Modules are qualified for use only with the Intel-based Xserve. For drive module compatibility with other Xserve systems, please see https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107569