Nice gift! I know this is an old question, I'm answering the original in case anyone else wonders this way.
1.) To which SAS connector do I connect the cable? there are 4
The photo you posted shows two, redundant IO modules (A and B). The ports with circles are primary ports, the ports with diamonds are expansion ports (this device is intended to be daisy-chained, hence the expanders). You want to connect the HBA ports on your server to the inner ports with circles on the first DAE. If you are daisy chaining, you would connect the diamond ports on the first DAE to the circle ports on the second DAE.
Here's a photo from yhe "Introduction to the EMC VNC Series" whitepaper:
![Screenshot-from-2019-07-30-00-42-39.png](../../images/1219958283.webp)
Only one connection (path) is required to access your disks. As ewwhite mentioned, this device is intended to be used as a multi-path device for throughput and redundancy purposes.
2.) I have not turned it on yet, but I assume the 7-segment-LCD will probably show a channel number. Is there a way to change it to 1 without connecting it back to the VNX solution?
If you are not using this in a VNX system, don't worry about it. I have three of these setup on Linux and the LEDs flash a "-" (hyphen) symbol. The bus/channel/home stuff is for VNX solutions.
3.) Can this shelf accept SATA drives?
Yes...but this all depends on the hard drive caddies you have with your enclosure, not the enclosure itself. If you want to use SATA, purchase interposers that fit in the caddies that accept SATA. You can purchase these easity on eBay (search, "KTN-STL3 interposer sata"). Again, as ewwhite mentioned, you really don't want to do this. SAS drives support multipath (two paths for throughput and reliability); SATA only has one path. SAS, 2-3TB, 3.5", 7200RPM drives are pretty cheap, it's worth it.