Patent ID: 8806123

Claim:
A data storage system comprising: a plurality of disk drive sections, each one of the disk drive sections having a plurality of disk drives; a plurality of secondary SAS expanders coupled to a corresponding one of the disk drive sections, each one of the secondary SAS expanders having: (1) a plurality of first ports each one being connected to a corresponding one of the disk drives in the corresponding one of the plurality of disk drive sections coupled thereto; and (2) a second port; and a first and second main SAS expander having: (1) a first port; and (2) N second ports, each one of the N second ports of the first and second main expanders being connected to the second port of a corresponding one of the plurality of N secondary expanders; a first and second disk array enclosures having therein: the plurality of disk drive sections; the plurality of secondary SAS expanders; and one of the first and second main SAS expanders; wherein the enclosures having therein one or more cooling sections wherein the first and second main expanders is coupled to the one or more cooling sections; and a storage processor disposed outside of the first and second disk array enclosures and coupled to the first port of the first and second main SAS expanders, wherein the storage processor is enabled to communicate with each of the plurality of disk drive sections through a first logical point of entry through the first port of the first and second main SAS expanders.