Installing a SATA/SAS RAID Card in an IBM x3200 Server

So I'm a fan of IBM, we've standardised on it at work and by and large I have the utmost respect for the way they guide you through the process. They make it nice and simple to do things like upgrade RAM, and install addon cards for the system. However, I'll admit to spending at least an hour trying to figure out what they'd done this time.

The x3200 has an optional SAS/SATA RAID card upgrade kit which can be purchased to provide a basic RAID capability to the x3200 server. As per all of their upgrades there are a bunch of useful instructions, and in this case the general idea seemed to be:

1) Remove the hard drive backing enclosure that comes with the system
2) Install new hard drive backing enclosure (included with upgrade kit)
3) Install the SAS/SATA RAID Mini-PCI Card onto the motherboard
4) Plug the lead from the new backing enclosure into the Mini-PCI Card.

All seems fairly simple right? Well the interesting thing about this is that for someone who has never seen the connector they use from the new hard drive backing enclosure, the first thing you'll probably do is try and plug it straight into the SAS/SATA Card.

This is correct, however lets assume you've never seen a SAS Adapter, and you only know of a SATA connector. The plug that comes from the new backing enclosure looks nothing like either. On top of this, the new Mini-PCI Card looks like it takes some other style of connector unknown to man.

Heres the clincher: It's actually a cover over the real plug. You need to take this cap off, and the plug will go in perfectly. Feel free to get a flat head screw driver in there to take the cap off, as for all intents and purposes it actually looks like its a moulded part of the interface.

I sat and watched the installation video 5 times, and tried gingerly to take the cap off a few times before speaking to a friend of mine who'd done this before. Apparently this confused him the first time too, so I didn't feel quite as stupid afterwards.

A brief intro

A thousand reasons why i suck, is designed to blog about the pitfalls i discover in the computing environment I manage at work. I'll post on the noggin scratchers (from the simple to the even more simple) that kept me frustrated or occupied for hours, in the hope that a frustrated techie who knows what they're doing but is puzzled by something they're sure is simple, can find that answer here.

God knows there have been a number of times when I've been staring the solution in the face but it has never quite clicked.