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Seagate Mozaic SMR drives qualify for a Broadcom HBA
Seagate has confirmed that Mozaic HAMR+SMR drives qualify for a Broadcom HBA. The configuration is intended for large-scale storage systems.
Seagate announced on October 26, 2026, that Mozaic drives using HAMR and SMR had been added to the approved list for a Broadcom host bus adapter (HBA). An HBA connects a server to drives, and Microsoft Azure Storage has completed qualification of the configuration.
HAMR uses heat during recording. SMR partially overlaps recording tracks to fit more data on a drive. The announcement concerns hardware interoperability in data centers; Seagate did not name the adapter model or the capacities of the qualified drives.
SMR for archives and backups
Seagate lists large media repositories, backup tiers and archives among suitable SMR workloads, where data is written sequentially and read occasionally. That workload pattern helps make use of the higher recording density.
A storage system using these drives needs SMR-aware software. It must manage drive zones and maintain the required write order. Compatibility between an adapter and a drive does not replace those software requirements.