8 cable listings tracked ยท prices updated
Three external SAS connector families matter for a used disk shelf: SFF-8470 (oldest, SAS-1 era), SFF-8088 (external mini-SAS, the 3-6Gb/s generation), and SFF-8644 (external mini-SAS HD, the 12Gb/s generation). The cable has to match BOTH ends - your HBA's external port and the shelf's port - and an internal port on either device looks similar to an external one without mating to it at all. Cheapest cable we track right now: $13.99.
"SAS cable" undersells how many physically distinct connectors the SAS specification has used for external connections. SFF-8470 is the oldest of the three still encountered on used enterprise gear - a SAS-1 era connector, largely superseded by the time 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s SAS became common, and not compatible with either of the newer connectors without a specific adapter cable, which is thin on the ground secondhand. SFF-8088 is external mini-SAS, the connector most 3-6Gb/s era HBAs and disk shelves use. SFF-8644 is external mini-SAS HD, physically smaller and denser, used on 12Gb/s-generation cards and shelves. None of the three plugs into either of the others without a hybrid cable built for exactly that pairing.
The trap that catches the most buyers is not between these three - it is between an EXTERNAL port and an internal one of the same generation. A card with internal SFF-8087 (the mini-SAS counterpart to SFF-8088) or internal SFF-8643 (the mini-SAS HD counterpart to SFF-8644) has nothing on its bracket to plug an external shelf cable into, no matter how closely the connector shape resembles the external version in a product photo. Our HBA pages state internal-versus-external per card rather than leaving it to the port shape alone.
Sourced per model where we could confirm it, and stated as unconfirmed where we could not - see each shelf's own spec table for the full picture and its source.
| Shelf | Connector | |
|---|---|---|
| HP D3600 | not documented in what we could access | full spec โ |
| NetApp DS4246 | NetApp's own SAS and ACP Cabling Guide does not use SFF Committee connector names (SFF-8088/8470/8644) anywhere for this shelf family. It do... | full spec โ |
| NetApp DS2246 | NetApp's own SAS and ACP Cabling Guide does not use SFF Committee connector names (SFF-8088/8470/8644) anywhere for this shelf family. It do... | full spec โ |
| HP D2700 | not documented in what we could access | full spec โ |
| HP D3700 | not documented in what we could access | full spec โ |
NetApp's DS4246 and DS2246 are the clearest case, and the least intuitive one: NetApp's own SAS and ACP Cabling Guide never uses an SFF Committee connector name for this shelf family at all. NetApp's own SAS and ACP Cabling Guide does not use SFF Committee connector names (SFF-8088/8470/8644) anywhere for this shelf family. It documents "SAS copper cables" for short runs and "SAS optical" cables for longer runs - optical cables specified as QSFP-to-QSFP (up to 50m) or MPO-to-QSFP breaking out to SC/LC/MTRJ at a patch panel. Match the physical port shown in the cabling guide's own diagrams rather than assuming a generic external-SAS standard applies. That is a real, sourced difference from the generic SFF-8088/8644 picture most external-SAS advice assumes - if you own one of these shelves, match the port shown in NetApp's own diagrams rather than a generic mini-SAS cable description.
A cable listing is the one piece of this whole chain that is easy to get wrong from a photo alone, because thumbnail images rarely show a connector at a scale where the pin count and latch style are legible. The reliable way to confirm a match: photograph the actual port on your HBA's bracket and the actual port on the shelf's I/O module, side by side, before ordering anything - not a stock photo of the card model, which can show a different port configuration than the specific card revision you own. Sellers of used enterprise cable runs usually state length and connector type accurately, because a wrong cable is a return either way; the risk is almost always on the buyer's side, matching the wrong two ends rather than the seller misrepresenting one end.
Length matters more than it looks like it should. A cable rated for a specific run length under the SAS specification is not a suggestion - signal integrity on copper external SAS degrades with distance, and a cable a few feet longer than the shelf actually needs is not a convenience, it is a length the connection has to tolerate for no benefit. Buy the length the rack actually requires, measured with the shelf in its intended U position, rather than rounding up "to be safe."
The older external mini-SAS connector, common on 3-6Gb/s era HBAs and shelves.
External mini-SAS HD, the 12Gb/s-generation connector on newer HBAs and shelves.
Bridges a 12Gb/s HBA port to a 6Gb/s-era shelf port, or the reverse - mixed-generation cabling.
Look at the bracket, not the port shape alone - an internal SFF-8087/8643 port and an external SFF-8088/8644 port on the same card generation can look deceptively similar in photos. The card's own product page or the sticker on the card itself will say "external" or list an SFF number; our HBA pages state this per card. If the card shipped in a server with internal-only bays and no rear SAS port, it is almost certainly internal-only regardless of what a generic product photo elsewhere suggests.
Yes, with a hybrid cable rather than a passive adapter - the cables in the SFF-8644-to-SFF-8088 row above are exactly that: one end for a 12Gb/s-generation HBA port, the other for a 6Gb/s-era shelf port (or the reverse). The connection runs at the slower of the two generations, but it works. There is no cable that converts SFF-8088 or SFF-8644 to the older SFF-8470 connector in what we track - that generation predates the mini-SAS HD ecosystem entirely.
Copper external SAS cables are specified for short runs - typically a few metres - regardless of connector generation; that is a property of copper SAS signalling generally; check the specific cable listing's stated length rather than assuming a longer copper run works because the connector matches. NetApp's own documentation for its shelf line specifies optical cabling (QSFP-based) for longer runs rather than a longer copper cable - see the NetApp section below.
Neither, per NetApp's own documentation for the DS4246/DS2246 family: their SAS and ACP Cabling Guide describes cabling generically as "SAS copper cables" and "SAS optical cables" - the optical variant specified as QSFP-to-QSFP or MPO-to-QSFP - without using SFF Committee connector numbers anywhere in what rendered. Match the physical port shown in NetApp's own cabling diagrams (linked on the DS4246 and DS2246 pages) rather than assuming a generic SFF-8088/8644 cable fits.
They are not interchangeable and do not look alike once you know what to check. A SATA data cable is a flat, thin, unshielded connector meant for a single drive over a short internal run. External SAS cables are shielded, round, thicker cables built to carry four SAS lanes per connector over a longer, cabinet-to-cabinet run, terminated in one of the SFF connector families on this page. Nothing about a disk shelf's external port accepts a SATA cable - the SAS connector is physically incompatible with it, which is the intended failure mode: it is meant to stop the wrong cable from being forced into the wrong port.
It changes which cable you need, not whether one exists. The SAS specification defines each generation's per-lane signaling rate (3, 6 and 12Gb/s across the generations these connectors serve), and a link between two different generations of port runs at the older of the two per the standard - that governs the electrical link, not our claim about any specific product's real-world behavior. It does not change the connector: a hybrid SFF-8644-to-SFF-8088 cable is still the right physical part for a 12Gb/s port on one end and a 6Gb/s-era port on the other, exactly as listed in the hybrid row above.