You have to understand what size of drive bay your server has, only then you can choose the right size of hard drives with the right size of drive carriers.
How it’s working overall? Press the release button and open the release handle. Then slide hot plug hard drive with driver carrier for inside or outside of your server. The Hot-Plug hard drive with drive carrier is for connecting a hard drive to a server backplane. Your server backplane is connected to a DELL PERC RAID controller. After installation, you can adjust or create RAID Volume from the RAID controller menu.
But what its standalone backplane? Dell entry level PowerEdge servers, not all have hot plug backplanes. Standalone backplane simply means that hard drives are complete inside of server under hook cover. Cables are connected directly to hard drive connectors. On smaller DELL servers with a basic controller, hard drives are cabled one by one. Cabled hard drives are not hot swappable, because these systems will not have a backplane. Right, but how I know? You can see a difference in these pictures.
The purpose of Hard Disk carrier?
This device has multipurpose functions. Hard Disk carrier has release handle and it open and push the disk out of DELL-server. Hard Disk connectors have to exactly hit backplane connectors. Otherwise, the whole installation does not work. Hard Disk carrier physical holds hard drive exactly right position. Hard Disk carrier also lead disk indicator lights. To the front of Hard Disk carrier that you can see individual hard drives activity status. Only with correct hard drive carrier Hard Disk can work as a hot-plug disk.
Installation is one Hard Disk per one disk carrier. Hard Disks generate heat and that has to cool. Servers taking cooling air in front and push out in the back of server. In case that hard drives are not full there is plastic drive “blank” cover. Its recommend leaving in place that cooling can work well. There are many times issue that client doesn’t know what carrier frame is suitable for witch server? A seller should offer compatibility tables, and you can be sure that you have always a right part.