4X NVME Drives, will it bottleneck a 6G Raid Controller?

[dicecca112]

Recently purchased 4 of these drives with the intention of RAIDing them for us in a VMware Lab Server.

These are the drive specs
Max Sequential Read
2200 MB/s
Max Sequential Write
900 MB/s
A RAID 5 would give me 3X read on same writes, so we are looking at 6600 MB/s Writes. If I understand correctly, a single port will give 6400MB/s. So since each drive will be direct connected to a single port, would I be okay?

My concern is that I will need 12G Controller and not a 6G.

 

[i386]

Raid 5 =faster reads, same or slower write compared to a single drive (without caching like cache Cade or maxcache)
And hardware raid controllers don't work with nvme drives

 

[dicecca112]

So these are U.2 devices so even if I connect this cable

‌SFF-8639 68P Straight + PWR to SFF-8643 36P HD Mini SAS U.2 Cable

I can't raid them?

 

[T_Minus]

No, NVME is not SAS and vice-versa.

 

[dicecca112]

So in that case just use a 12G HBA then and run FREENAS?

 

[pyro_]

A 12gbs hba will still not work with nvme drives. You would need sas or data drives to use an hba

 

[dicecca112]

Gotcha then it's use the cards @Patrick reconmends here

4 solutions tested: Add 2.5" SFF NVMe to your current system

 

[T_Minus]

No.

The cheapest way is to use a Funtin adwapter found on amazon or ebay. Around $40 converts 2.5" to PCIE card

 

[pyro_]

Correct one of those would do the job. You will probably need to use a couple of cards as the most you will be able to connect is two drives to one card

 

[dicecca112]

@T_Minus is this the adapter Amazon.com: Funtin U.2 (SFF-8639) to HD Mini-SAS (SFF-8643) Cable for 2.5" NVMe SSD: Computers & Accessories you reference?

 

[Patrick]

If you have four drives, you need four NVMe ports, not a SAS controller.

You will likely want to use 2x PCIe x8 slots and connect two drives each. Assuming you do not have a PCIe switch on the motherboard, you will need Amazon.com: Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2E4 NVme PCIe card: Computers & Accessories or SuperMicro AOC-SLG3-2E4 NVme PCIe card | eBay
The 2E4R does not have a PLX switch so it is unlikely to work.

In terms of RAID you are going to have to go software RAID. If you have four drives, I will suggest RAID 1 mirrors or RAID 10. Parity calculations add latency that you do not want with NVMe.

 

[Rand__]

Or one of the fancy new Tri-Mode-HBAs
SAS/SATA/NVMe Host Bus Adapters

 

[dicecca112]

You find me a place to buy one, and I'll happily be a tester subject.

 

[_alex]

+1 for the tri-mode and posting experience how to cable this thing

 

[Patriot]

Or one of the fancy new Tri-Mode-HBAs
SAS/SATA/NVMe Host Bus Adapters

*Feature available at a later release

 

[Rand__]

*Feature available at a later release

I think that's just the maximum number of 24 nvme drives that will not be possible right away...
Looks like this pertains to non PCIe x4 modes if I read the manual correctly