Are Dell PowerVault MD3200 EMMs compatible with the MD1200 chassis/midplane?

I have a Dell MD1200 chassis with PSUs, and I have yet to buy the EMM units. I was wondering if I could buy the MD3200 EMMs and have it function as an MD3200 or if I have to buy the MD1200 EMMs. I would assume the chassis/midplane would be the same between the two models to save Dell on cost, but I'm probably wrong.

My primary concern is whether I'll have complete redundancy between the EMMs, as I read that the MD1200 don't provide the full drive path redundancy like the MD3200 (e.g. lose an EMM, lose access to the drives attached to it).

Solution 1:

Yes, it is possible to use MD3200 controller modules in an MD1200 chassis, though the backplane "branding" setting may cause problems with configuring it without help from Dell. This would also be considered an unsupported configuration, so you may not be able to get the needed help there. And you're correct on it being the same part. I'm not sure where you would have read that MD1200 EMMs don't provide complete redundancy, but that is incorrect unless you're using the enclosure in "split" mode. Split mode gives each EMM access to half of the disks, for when two different RAID controllers / servers want to share the enclosure. In "unified" mode, losing an EMM would only cause you to lose access to one of the two redundant SAS channels on each drive. I'd recommend just buying the EMMs if you have the correct server-side hardware to connect to them.