What is the Toshiba AL Series Enterprise Performance Hard Drive?

The AL Series is a 2.5-inch SAS enterprise hard drive designed for mission-critical applications where low latency and high transactional throughput are essential. It features a dual-port SAS interface at up to 12 Gb/s, an unlimited workload rating, a MTTF of 2 million hours, and a 5-year warranty.

What makes the Toshiba AL Series suitable for mission-critical applications?

The AL Series combines an unlimited workload rating, dual-port SAS for path redundancy, a 128 MB cache, and Persistent Write Cache Technology to protect data integrity during sudden power loss. These features make it highly suitable for always-available business databases, virtualisation, and transaction-intensive enterprise applications.

What is the transfer speed of the Toshiba AL Series SAS interface?

The AL Series features a dual-port SAS interface capable of reaching and sustaining 12 Gb/s data transfer rates. The dual-port design also provides path redundancy, ensuring continuous data access if one SAS path fails.

What is Persistent Write Cache Technology in the Toshiba AL Series?

Persistent Write Cache Technology protects data held in the drive’s write cache against loss in the event of a sudden power interruption. In a database or virtualised environment, this prevents corruption of in-flight transactions without requiring the write cache to be disabled.

What capacities does the Toshiba AL Series come in?

The AL Series is available in capacities from 300 GB to 2.4 TB in 2.5-inch form factor, targeting high transactional performance per spindle rather than raw storage capacity.

What encryption and security options are available on the AL Series?

The AL Series supports flexible block sizes. Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) and Sanitize Instant Erase (SIE) options are available as special-order variants for enterprises with data-at-rest security and compliance requirements. These models must be ordered separately from the standard product range.

What is the MTTF of the Toshiba AL Series?

The AL Series has a Mean Time To Failure rating of 2 million hours, reflecting its design for continuous, high-load operation in business-critical server environments.

How does the AL Series compare to the MG Series for enterprise use?

The AL Series is a 2.5-inch SAS performance drive for transaction-heavy, low-latency workloads such as databases and virtualisation. The MG Series is a 3.5-inch capacity drive (up to 24 TB) for storage arrays and cloud infrastructure. They serve different roles and are often deployed together in the same datacentre.

What warranty does the Toshiba AL Series Enterprise Hard Drive come with?

The AL Series comes with a 5-year limited warranty, consistent with its positioning as a mission-critical drive built for always-on enterprise environments with an MTTF of 2 million hours.

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Enterprise

Enterprise Performance Hard Drive – AL Series

Enterprise-class performance

For business systems, failure just isn’t an option – so when you have mission-critical applications you need storage solutions that meet your needs. Toshiba’s Enterprise Performance Hard Drive – AL Series delivers high storage densities with rapid data transfer speed, backed up by a 5-year warranty. You can trust the AL Series to deliver day in and day out, 24/7, even in the most demanding high-performance server and storage systems. Especially when traffic is high, the hard drives have the speed needed to perform simultaneous transactions smoothly and efficiently. Additionally, proprietary technologies like the Toshiba Persistent Write Cache Technology and crypto options provide the assurance that your data will stay in safe hands.

Use for:
• Enterprise server and storage systems
• Business database server with high workloads
• Big data analytics
• Virtualized storage systems

2.5'' SAS Hard Drive
Dual-port SAS interface
24/7 operation
Unlimited workload (TB/year)
MTTF of 2 mill. hours
Persistent Write Cache technology
Flexibility in block size and SIE and SED options
5-year warranty

Colour

With a range of capacities starting at 300 GB and reaching 2.4 TB and flexible, advanced technology options the AL Series offers the right solution for demanding high-performance and mission-critical enterprise applications.

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Performance for 24/7 operation

Because data never sleeps, your storage solutions need to be ready at any time of the day or night, 24/7. We understand that your company needs to be ready to perform demanding business server operations, that's why the AL Series delivers high performance at a workload of 550 TB/year and comes with a 128 MB cache. The series is specifically engineered for mission-critical IT operations, where low latency is of highest priority.

Getting the full data bandwidth to every drive

Every member of the AL Series features a high performance dual-port SAS interface that can reach and sustain 12 GB/s transfer rates, delivering excellent performance and additional safety in mission-critical systems. Enterprise users can work with confidence, knowing that their data paths will always be accessible and operating at fast speed with high reliability.

Enterprise-class reliability

Enterprise users need flexibility - the AL Series meets this need with a choice of Advanced Format options and block size on demand (512e, 4Kn, 512n). Furthermore, every member of the AL Series comes with an industry-leading Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) of 2 million hours and a 5-year warranty, providing enterprise-class reliability for the ultimate peace of mind.

Keeping your critical data safe

Your data is critical so don't risk losing it. Toshiba's proprietary technologies have been developed to add security and assurance to the enterprise user. With Persistent Write Cache Technology your data is safe in the event of an interruption in power supply during a write to the hard disk. Data is saved in the large flash-based cache and written to the disk when power is restored.

Technology options for peace of mind

Keeping your data secure is made simpler by choosing a Self Enrypting Drive (SED) from Toshiba. This feature option uses cryptography to encrypt data as it is written on the hard disk drive. Additonally, if you choose a hard drive with Sanitize Instant Erase (SIE) technology, all data can be erased in an instant without the need for overwriting the drive for hours.

Built to deliver, designed to last

Toshiba is renowned the world over for 50 years of leading innovation – and the power behind its range of hard drives is no exception. Designed for high capacity and excellent performance, you can be sure that Toshiba’s wealth of experience in hard drives is at work in your storage system. A 5-year extended warranty is also included with the Enterprise Capacity Hard Drive - MG Series for the ultimate peace of mind.

Product Specifications

Basic Specifications
Form factor

2.5-inch
Interface

SAS 12 Gbit/s
Available capacities

2.4 TB / 1.8 TB / 1.2 TB / 900 GB / 600 GB / 300 GB
RoHS compatible

Yes
Halogen Free

Yes

Performance
Rotational speed

15,000 rpm / 10,500 rpm
Buffer size

128 MB
Reliability
Unrecoverable error rate

1 per 10^16 bits read
24/7 operation

Supported
Limited warranty

5 years

Download Datasheet

Product Range

Part number	Capacity	Color
AL14SX	-	-
AL15SE	-	-

Manual

Download Manual (PDF, 501 KB)

Where to buy

FAQ

The AL Series is a 2.5-inch SAS enterprise hard drive designed for mission-critical applications where low latency and high transactional throughput are essential. It features a dual-port SAS interface at up to 12 Gb/s, an unlimited workload rating, a MTTF of 2 million hours, and a 5-year warranty.
The AL Series combines an unlimited workload rating, dual-port SAS for path redundancy, a 128 MB cache, and Persistent Write Cache Technology to protect data integrity during sudden power loss. These features make it highly suitable for always-available business databases, virtualisation, and transaction-intensive enterprise applications.
The AL Series features a dual-port SAS interface capable of reaching and sustaining 12 Gb/s data transfer rates. The dual-port design also provides path redundancy, ensuring continuous data access if one SAS path fails.
Persistent Write Cache Technology protects data held in the drive’s write cache against loss in the event of a sudden power interruption. In a database or virtualised environment, this prevents corruption of in-flight transactions without requiring the write cache to be disabled.
The AL Series is available in capacities from 300 GB to 2.4 TB in 2.5-inch form factor, targeting high transactional performance per spindle rather than raw storage capacity.
The AL Series supports flexible block sizes. Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) and Sanitize Instant Erase (SIE) options are available as special-order variants for enterprises with data-at-rest security and compliance requirements. These models must be ordered separately from the standard product range.
The AL Series has a Mean Time To Failure rating of 2 million hours, reflecting its design for continuous, high-load operation in business-critical server environments.
The AL Series is a 2.5-inch SAS performance drive for transaction-heavy, low-latency workloads such as databases and virtualisation. The MG Series is a 3.5-inch capacity drive (up to 24 TB) for storage arrays and cloud infrastructure. They serve different roles and are often deployed together in the same datacentre.
The AL Series comes with a 5-year limited warranty, consistent with its positioning as a mission-critical drive built for always-on enterprise environments with an MTTF of 2 million hours.