IBM 31R3305 BLADECENTER H MEDIA TRAY no drive

The IBM 31R3305 is the BladeCenter H Media Tray (without an optical drive installed) — a front-panel removable media bay assembly for the IBM BladeCenter H chassis (machine type 8852, 1886, 7989, and compatible models).

This media tray is a hot-swappable front module that provides shared access to removable media devices (such as CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives, USB ports, and sometimes floppy) across all blade servers installed in the BladeCenter H chassis. It connects via a dedicated connector on the chassis midplane, allowing any blade to use the media tray resources without needing individual drives in each blade.

Key features:

• No optical drive included — this is the "no drive" / "filler" variant (empty tray only; optical drive can be added separately if needed)
• Two USB v2.0 ports — accessible from the front panel for connecting USB flash drives, keyboards, mice, or other USB devices to any blade
• Optional optical drive bay — supports UltraSlim enhanced SATA multi-burner or CD/DVD drives (e.g., FRU 44W3256) when installed
• Front system LED panel — integrated LEDs for chassis status (power, fault, location)
• Tool-less design — easy insertion/removal with release tabs
• Midplane compatibility — designed for use with specific midplane FRUs (e.g., 25R5780 or similar; must match midplane connector type)

The media tray is shared across all blades in the chassis — any blade can access the optical drive (if present) or USB ports via the chassis management. It is a critical component for OS installation, firmware updates, diagnostics, or USB-based management in blade environments.