Lenovo 2U24 Chassis - 7Y71100CNA

Lenovo 7Y71100CNA 2U 24-Bay DAS/SAN Hybrid Storage System

Overview

The Lenovo ThinkSystem DE2000H — part number 7Y71100CNA — is a 2U, 24-bay hybrid storage array designed for environments that need flexible DAS or SAN connectivity without committing to a purely all-flash or all-spinning topology. At 3.3" H x 17.7" W x 21.8" D, it fits cleanly in any standard 19-inch rack and leaves room for the rest of your infrastructure stack. With dual 12Gb/s SAS controllers and 8GB of controller cache per controller, it's built for workloads where consistent throughput and failover resilience matter — think surveillance video repositories, secondary storage tiers behind a Lenovo server stack, or shared storage for virtualisation clusters that can't tolerate a single controller failure.

Key Features

• 24 Universal Drive Bays (HDD and SSD): Every bay accepts either spinning HDDs or SSDs, so you can start with high-capacity nearline drives and migrate to a hybrid or all-flash configuration as budgets allow — without swapping the chassis. That flexibility matters when storage requirements evolve faster than procurement cycles.
• Dual 12Gb/s SAS Controllers: Two independent controllers running 12Gb/s SAS deliver the redundancy required for production storage. If one controller fails, the second takes over without interrupting host I/O — the architecture you need when downtime has a real cost. Host connectivity runs over the same 12Gb/s SAS fabric, keeping the inter-controller and host-facing bandwidth consistent.
• 8GB Controller Cache: Each controller carries 8GB of cache to absorb write bursts and serve read-ahead data, smoothing out the latency spikes that characterise mixed random/sequential workloads. In practice this translates to more consistent response times under load rather than the sawtooth pattern you see with direct-to-disk writes.
• Redundant 913W Power Supply: Dual redundant power supplies rated at 913W each mean a PSU failure doesn't become a storage outage. For network storage and DAS deployments running 24x7, redundant power is a baseline requirement, not an upgrade — the 7Y71100CNA ships with it standard.
• 2U 24-Bay Density: Fitting 24 drives into 2U of rack space keeps your storage-to-rack-unit ratio high. In dense deployments where rack space costs money — colocation, edge data rooms, surveillance server closets — that density reduces per-terabyte rack overhead meaningfully.
• DAS and SAN Dual-Mode Support: The hybrid DAS/SAN classification means you can connect it directly to a single server (DAS mode) or zone it across a SAS fabric to multiple hosts (SAN mode). That dual-mode capability avoids a dedicated SAN fabric for smaller deployments while leaving the door open as the environment scales.
• ThinkSystem DE2000H Series Lineage: Sitting in Lenovo's ThinkSystem storage family, the DE2000H is designed for interoperability with ThinkSystem servers and the broader Lenovo data centre ecosystem — firmware, support, and lifecycle management align with the rest of the stack rather than requiring a separate storage vendor relationship.

Integration and Compatibility

The 12Gb/s SAS host interface positions the DE2000H for integration with servers equipped with SAS HBAs or SAS RAID controllers. The 24-bay capacity supports a range of drive configurations — from high-density nearline SAS HDDs for bulk video retention to SAS SSDs for applications requiring lower latency. The 2U form factor is compatible with standard 600mm and 1000mm rack depths given its 21.8" depth. For surveillance workloads, the combination of large raw capacity and dual-controller redundancy suits centralised NVR storage expansion where a single storage failure cannot be tolerated. The controller's 8GB cache per controller is also well-suited to the sequential write-heavy profile of continuous video recording across many streams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the warranty on the Lenovo 7Y71100CNA?

A: The 7Y71100CNA carries a 3-year manufacturer warranty.

Q: Can the DE2000H be used in both DAS and SAN configurations?

A: Yes. The ThinkSystem DE2000H supports both Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) and SAN (Storage Area Network) topologies via its 12Gb/s SAS host interface, providing deployment flexibility based on your connectivity requirements.

Q: How many drive bays does the 7Y71100CNA support, and what drive types are compatible?

A: The 7Y71100CNA provides 24 drive bays that support both HDDs and SSDs — all 24 bays are universal, so you can populate them with spinning drives, solid-state drives, or a mix of both.

Q: Does the DE2000H have redundant power supplies?

A: Yes. The 7Y71100CNA ships with redundant 913W power supplies, providing PSU-level fault tolerance for continuous operation environments.

Q: How many controllers does the 7Y71100CNA include, and what is the controller interface speed?

A: The system includes two controllers, both operating at 12Gb/s SAS, with 8GB of cache per controller. The dual-controller configuration enables controller-level redundancy so a single controller failure does not interrupt storage access.

Q: What are the physical dimensions of the 7Y71100CNA?

A: The unit measures 3.3" H x 17.7" W x 21.8" D and occupies 2U of rack space, fitting standard 19-inch equipment racks.

Karl Wilson

The 7Y71100CNA is one of those storage platforms that earns its place in a rack by solving a specific problem well: you need 24 bays of mixed-drive capacity with genuine controller-level redundancy in 2U, and you need it to connect via 12Gb/s SAS to an existing ThinkSystem host environment. The dual-controller architecture with 8GB cache per controller is the spec I'd anchor a deployment decision on — it's not there for marketing, it's there because a single-controller failure in a production storage array is a service outage, and in surveillance or near-line storage contexts that's typically unacceptable.

Technical Highlights:

• Dual 12Gb/s SAS Controllers: Two independent controllers with separate failure domains — if one goes offline, the second maintains host I/O without a rescan or manual failover intervention. At 12Gb/s per controller, you have headroom for mixed sequential video writes and random read workloads simultaneously.
• 24 Universal Drive Bays: All 24 bays accept HDD or SSD, which matters for phased build-outs. You can start fully populated with nearline HDDs for bulk video retention and migrate individual bays to SSD as access-tier requirements emerge — the chassis doesn't constrain the transition.
• Redundant 913W PSU: Both PSUs are hot-swappable standard — at 913W per supply the system has adequate headroom for a full 24-drive configuration under sustained read/write load without pushing the active supply to its limit during a single-PSU interim period.

Deployment Considerations:

• At 21.8" depth, verify your rack has adequate clearance behind the mounting rails before ordering — shallower telco or wall-mount enclosures may not accommodate it without cable management modifications.
• The 12Gb/s SAS host interface requires a compatible SAS HBA or expander on the host side; if your server is configured with SATA-only or NVMe-only connectivity, you'll need to add a SAS HBA before this unit is functional.

For centralised surveillance storage expansion — specifically environments running 32 or more camera channels on a ThinkSystem host where a single storage failure would mean lost footage — the DE2000H's dual-controller redundancy and 24-bay capacity in 2U is the right architectural fit. It's not the right pick for an NVMe-first workload or a standalone edge deployment; it earns its place in a structured SAS-connected storage tier.