The HP 70 Modular Smart Array enclosure is a 2U Serial Attach SCSI (SAS) disk drive storage enclosure supporting 2.5 inch SAS or Serial ATA (SATA) drives. This enclosure delivers industry-leading data performance, availability, storage density, and upgradeability to meet customers' demanding and growing storage needs. This enclosure is designed to support 2.5 inch Universal SAS and SATA hard drive form factors. The MSA70 enclosure supports direct attach storage (DAS) to HP ProLiant and Integrity Servers. The MSA70 supports the cascading of shelves in a 1+1 configuration to allow a maximum of 50 drives in a 4U configuration behind each of the two external ports on the HP Smart Array P800, the HP Smart Array E500, the HP Smart Array P411, the HP Smart Array P212 or the P812 Controller for a total of 100 drives in 4 enclosures (a single controller port incorporates four lanes for a total max throughput of 12Gb/s for SAS). (NOTE: Smart Array P411 and P812 Controllers are supported on ProLiant servers only).

On HP ProLiant servers Dual Domain support is available for the HP Smart Array P800 attached to a MSA70 with the addition of the HP Dual Domain I/O Module Option (AG779A). (Single initiator environment only.)
The MSA70 also supports the HP Smart Array P600 and the HP Smart Array P212 Controllers. Behind the single external port on the HP Smart Array P600 controller 1+1 cascading allows a maximum of 50 drives in a 4U configuration. (NOTE: Smart Array P212 Controller is supported on ProLiant servers only).

For HP-UX and Open VMS environments on selected HP Integrity Servers the MSA70 supports the HP (AH303A) SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter with the addition of the HP Dual Domain I/O Module Option (AG779A). Behind the single external port on the HP (AH303A) SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter 1+1 cascading allows a maximum of 50 drives in a 4U configuration. The HP (AH303A) SC44Ge Host Bust Adapter will only support HP-UX and Open VMS environments and will be available on all rack mounted HP Integrity Servers with PCIe slots.

The addition of the I/O Module with the HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter adds support for Multi Initiator JBOD Clusters. It will support HP-UX and Open VMS on selected HP Integrity servers only. The MSA70 with the I/O Module and the HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adaptor will not support ProLiant servers. Multi Initiator JBOD clusters are supported with dual port SAS drives only.

Support for HP Serviceguard software on HP-UX with HP-UX 11iv2/11iv3 only. HP Serviceguard monitors the health of each node and rapidly responds to failures in a way that minimizes or eliminates application downtime.

NOTE: HP Integrity servers that are supported:
rx2660, rx3600, rx6600, rx7640, rx8640, Superdome sx2000 (only the version that support PCI-e cards)

The MSA70 is also supported when attached to a HP MSA2000 G2 or P2000 G3 Small Form Factor (SFF) Arrays. The SFF MSA2000 G2 or the P2000 G3 can accommodate up to twenty four (24) SFF drives and is designed for small to medium size department and remote locations. The MSA2000 G2 supports attachment of up to three (3) dual I/O MSA70 SFF JBODs (99 SFF drives). P2000 G3 Arrays support attachment of up to five(5) dual I/O MSA70 SFF JBODs (149 SFF drives).