Lab Report: Supermicro JBOD “947SE2C-R1K66JBOD”

Top-loaded HDD enclosures with 60+ HDDs are becoming more and more popular, as they serve the need storing more and more data on smaller rack- and datacenter footprint. Drives are inserted from the top into an array of several rows of HDDs conveniently. Still due to this construction, all such enclosures face the same maintenance challenge: Installing drives as well as hot-swapping is tricky, since the heavy enclosure needs to be pulled out of the rack with all cables and the entire unit has to be pulled out to open the lid.

Supermicro introduced a smart solution to solve this problem: With the second generation of the “947”-chassis you can open the complete array like a drawer without the need to handle any cables or having to detach any lids. This looks promising, as it allows an easy and smooth installation and maintenance.

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH (“Toshiba”) had the chance to evaluate a sample of the 947SE2C-R1K66JBOD model (“JBOD947”) in the European HDD lab in Düsseldorf, Germany and to test the new drawer feature under live conditions.

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