Overview

The IBM EXP710 expansion enclosure allows you to add up to 14 3.5" disk modules to your DS4300 Turbo, DS4400, DS4500, and DS4700 storage servers. (Note that the recommended expansion enclosure for the DS4700 is the EXP810.) Disks may either be 10K RPM or 15K RPM 2Gbps Fibre Channel units.

The EXP710 accepts the same disk modules as its EXP700 predecessor. The EXP710 improves upon EXP700 performance and reliability by adding a new switch architecture connecting disk drives within the enclosure. The EXP700 relies on an older Arbitrated Loop topology where fault isolation and signal integrity could degrade performance and reliability. EXP710 enclosures can be intermixed with EXP700 enclosures as well as EXP810 enclosures when set to operate at 2Gbps.

IBM TotalStorage DS40000 Storage Manager software should be at revision 9.10 or above to ensure that controller firmware is at the minimum revision to recognize EXP710 expansion units.