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Can you use SATA drives in a Dell ME5024

We have multiple servers that are using SATA3 SSDs and are configured to use Storage spaces. We are moving away from storage spaces and would like to put those drives into an ME5024. It says they are not supported but not that it will not work. From what I have found, you can use SATA with SAS connection (in fact the servers have SAS) but I was wondering if anyone had used SATA drives with a Dell ME5024

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You’re right that technically SATA drives can connect over a SAS backplane, since SAS is backward compatible with SATA at the interface level. But with the Dell ME5024, it’s not just about physical compatibility, it’s about firmware and validation.

Dell explicitly doesn’t support SATA drives in the ME5024, and that’s less about whether they’ll physically work and more about firmware integration, performance consistency, and supportability. Even if the drives show up and function, you’re likely to hit limitations like inconsistent performance, failed firmware checks, or drives being flagged as unsupported, which can cause problems during controller updates or support calls.

That said, I’ve seen people throw SATA SSDs into SAS trays for short-term use or lab setups, but I wouldn’t recommend it for production. The ME5024 is tuned for SAS drives for a reason, especially if you’re planning to use its full feature set like tiering, pooling, or snapshots.

If budget is tight and you want to reuse those SATA SSDs, you might get better results putting them in a JBOD or DAS box and connecting that to something less picky, or using them in a backup or test environment.

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And the Hot Swap thing…

SAS always is, SATA only sometimes is…

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I would NEVER use non supported drives or drives that did not come with the SAN appliance.

Totally support this statement…

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