Anyone successfully using a Micron 9400 Pro U.3 ssd?

[wdk1190]

I recently bought a couple of 16TB Micron 9400 Pro U.3 SSDs but I cannot get them to work under Linux (which is the only OS I've tried). I have a Supermicro H13SSL motherboard but the drives are not recognized when I plug them into the MCIO ports via a MCIO to U.2 cable. Ive tried both drives and many different cables and all the various ports. I've also tried the drives on a U.2 to PCIe carrier card (I have a U.3 one on the way but I dont have it yet. My understanding is that U.3 is supposed to be backward compatible with U.2). This also doesn't work. Sometimes it seems like the system is partially detecting the drive because I see a Micron Non-Volatile Memory controller in `lspci -nn` but the drives do not actually become available. There is sometimes a system log entry from udev regarding a timeout waiting for a device to activate, which is surely this drive.

I tried the drives in carrier cards in an asus consumer motherboard and got the same result. I've tried Fedora Server 38, Fedora Server 39, and Rocky Linux 9.3 .

I'd be very grateful if anyone who has gotten these drives to work could tell me exactly what hardware and operating system they are using so I can try to duplicate and at least determine if the drives are bad.

 

[Tech Junky]

I picked up a couple of 9450's and one died within a couple of hours and the other lasted under a week. However, someone else got two of them and they worked fine other than running hot and needing attached fans on them.

When mine died they still showed up in the lspci output but, I couldn't put data on them or partition them. After two attempts I switched to Kioxia and not a problem since.

Another thing is the cables need to be short for signal integrity. I got a 100cm and it wouldn't work but a 50cm works great.

 

[nexox]

Can you force the PCIe connections to 3.0 in your BIOS for troubleshooting? 4.0 is somewhat more sensitive to minor issues in cables and connectors and such. Also check dmesg for PCIe errors if you do get a device to show up, though they tend to be rather cryptic, it could point to a signal quality issue.

 

[NPS]

I picked up a couple of 9450's

There are no Micron 9450. Do you mean 7450?

I plug them into the MCIO ports via a MCIO to U.2 cable

Is it a cable from Supermicro?

 

[Tech Junky]

Do you mean 7450?

Maybe they were 9400's? Just checked and they were 7450 pros.

 

[wdk1190]

It is not a cable from supermicro, if you know how to get proper ones let me know! The ones I have have been working fine with some Micron 7300 U.2 drives. They are 50 cm.

But even using a straight carrier card that plugs it straight into PCIe doesn't work, so I don't know how it could be a signal quality issue (unless the micron 9400s actually require u.3). AFAICT there isn't any different between MCIO to U.2/U.3 cables though, they're the same connector with lengths of copper in between so I don't know how they could differ.

 

[wdk1190]

Can you force the PCIe connections to 3.0 in your BIOS for troubleshooting? 4.0 is somewhat more sensitive to minor issues in cables and connectors and such. Also check dmesg for PCIe errors if you do get a device to show up, though they tend to be rather cryptic, it could point to a signal quality issue.

The supermicro board has a bunch of options for the PCI system in the BIOS and Ive flipped all of them to various configurations but they don't seem to make a difference. I don't see a way to force PCI 3.0 though.

 

[NPS]

The Micron 7300 is gen3 which is a hint into the direction of gen4 signal quality issues. But of course only a hint.
The carrier PCB add in cards can also be problematic. Found that out myself... So unfortunately your findings here don't prove anything either. By the way, a direct cable from MB to disk is better than a add in card, most of the time.

Compatibility: A U.3 disk is specified to work on a U.2 backplane but not the other way around. I am not 100% shure what this means for cables, but I think a U.2 cable should work for you.

That cable from Supermicro is listed to work to connect 2x U.2 to MCIO x8 on H13SRA-TF, so it should work for you:
MCIO-1240U2Y-E

 

[wdk1190]

The Micron 7300 is gen3 which is a hint into the direction of gen4 signal quality issues. But of course only a hint.
The carrier PCB add in cards can also be problematic. Found that out myself... So unfortunately your findings here don't prove anything either. By the way, a direct cable from MB to disk is better than a add in card, most of the time.

Compatibility: A U.3 disk is specified to work on a U.2 backplane but not the other way around. I am not 100% shure what this means for cables, but I think a U.2 cable should work for you.

That cable from Supermicro is listed to work to connect 2x U.2 to MCIO x8 on H13SRA-TF, so it should work for you:
MCIO-1240U2Y-E

Thank you I ordered that cable and some other ones that claim to be U.3 so we'll see if any of them work. Ill post a follow up if I get it to work.

I would still be interested in hearing from anyone who has made exactly these drives work and what their setup was. I didn't even try to order them but micron sent them to me to replace some bad 7300s which they no longer have stock of!

 

[jei]

I had problems getting Micron 7450 Pro's up (U.3 Gen 4 - same as 9400).

Didn't work:
H12SSL-i/NT
AOC-SLG3-4E4T (Gen 3 retimer)
Supermicro Oculink cables (Gen 3)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Works:
H12SSL-NT
AOC-SLG4-4E4T (Gen 4 retimer)
Highpoint SFF-8654 to SFF-8611 NVMe cable (Gen 4)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Do with this information what you will.

edit: Fixed wrong dock model.

 

[wdk1190]

I had problems getting Micron 7450 Pro's up (U.3 Gen 4 - same as 9400).

Didn't work:
H12SSL-i/NT
AOC-SLG3-4E4T (Gen 3 retimer)
Supermicro Oculink cables (Gen 3)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Works:
H12SSL-NT
AOC-SLG4-4E4T (Gen 4 retimer)
Highpoint SFF-8654 to SFF-8611 NVMe cable (Gen 4)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Do with this information what you will.

edit: Fixed wrong dock model.

Thank you this is very very helpful!

 

[nexox]

AFAICT there isn't any different between MCIO to U.2/U.3 cables though, they're the same connector with lengths of copper in between so I don't know how they could differ.

The U.3 pinout is different, and I thought I read something about some U.3 drives that deviate from the standard and don't support U.2, but in a brief couple searches I didn't turn anything up. That would explain why the direct carrier board doesn't work, however.

 

[Tech Junky]

direct carrier board

I used two boards with two drives on the 7450 escapade and switched to an M2+
Oculink cable instead.

There's a lot of options to cobble something together in this space though. I went oculink for the bandwidth specs of Gen 4 with a Gen 4 drive to make sure it would perform at spec. I figured with the PCB options shorter traces would rule out issues though but.... Micron is a good price but seems to come with issues when it comes to deploying them.

 

[jei]

Reading Level1 forums etc. Micron Gen4 are not the only drives that don't work 100% with janky amazon adapters etc.

 

[happyfellow]

I've got working setup for:
H13SSL-NT
2x 15.360 TB Micron 7450 Pro
CableDeconn Internal 12G Mini SAS HD to U.2 / SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 Cable 0.5m with 15 Pin SATA Power Supply for U.2 SSD (from Amazon)
PCIE X16 to 4 Port U.2 Adapter Card, PCIE X16 to U.2 NVME SFF 8643 SFF 8639 PCIE Split Expansion Card, Supports PCIe 4.0, Supports 2U Enclosure, High Speed Lossless Transmission (also from Amazon)

I did some configs in bios related to bifurcation. Don't remember the details anymore.

 

[wdk1190]

I've got working setup for:
H13SSL-NT
2x 15.360 TB Micron 7450 Pro
CableDeconn Internal 12G Mini SAS HD to U.2 / SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 Cable 0.5m with 15 Pin SATA Power Supply for U.2 SSD (from Amazon)
PCIE X16 to 4 Port U.2 Adapter Card, PCIE X16 to U.2 NVME SFF 8643 SFF 8639 PCIE Split Expansion Card, Supports PCIe 4.0, Supports 2U Enclosure, High Speed Lossless Transmission (also from Amazon)

I did some configs in bios related to bifurcation. Don't remember the details anymore.

Im curious did you try using the MCIO ports at all?

 

[happyfellow]

Im curious did you try using the MCIO ports at all?

No, I built the box last spring and sourcing those MCIO cables was too difficult back then. I am currently looking to add a couple of more disks, will probably just add them to this bifurb card.

 

[wdk1190]

Small update, I tried an Ableconn U.3 carrier from amazon. It didn't work. I also tried super micro MCIO to U.2 cables CBL-MCIO-1245U2Y-E. These did not work either and the computer wouldnt even boot when I had them plugged into the middle MCIO port. Changing the port, it did boot but the device did not show up.

I am wondering if this is a linux kernel issue of some kind, but that would be strange because I'm using the very newest kernel and surely these drives were tested to run under linux.

 

[natanbackwards]

It's too bad people are having issues with Micron drives. They are one of the few that offer public easy to access firmware updates. Speaking of firmware if you can get these to show up in windows or in another machine maybe you can try updating the firmware?

 

[mattventura]

I had problems getting Micron 7450 Pro's up (U.3 Gen 4 - same as 9400).

Didn't work:
H12SSL-i/NT
AOC-SLG3-4E4T (Gen 3 retimer)
Supermicro Oculink cables (Gen 3)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Works:
H12SSL-NT
AOC-SLG4-4E4T (Gen 4 retimer)
Highpoint SFF-8654 to SFF-8611 NVMe cable (Gen 4)
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB699VP-B V3 (U.2/U.3 Gen 4)

Do with this information what you will.

edit: Fixed wrong dock model.

Are you able to get other drives working with the SLG3 setup?