Advice swapping x11ssh-f to x11ssm-f

[djeflig]

Hi!
I've got a server with a Supermicro x11ssh-f today and now I've gotten hold of a very cheap server with an x11ssm-f. My thinking is to strip it for parts and sell off the rest. I'm considering to swap my current x11ssh-f to the other card and I would appreciate if anyone's got any thoughts on the pros and cons doing this.
I'm currently using the the ngff connector on the x11ssh-f card but since this only got 2 lanes it seems like a better fit to swap the cards and put an aoc-slg3-2m2 adapter on the x8 lane pcie with bifurcation. I gather this would mean I still got 2 x4 pcies left plus the x8 in the x16 slot. Another reason would be that the x11ssm-f is lacking the function to use the igpu of the cpu. Ironically the server I just bought has a i3 cpu with igpu (unused) and the one I've got (xeon) doesn't since I prefer to use my Nvidia gtx 1650 for transcoding plex material anyway.
What I'm a bit unsure of is if I need to change some jumpers or something on the x11ssm-f to get the bifurcation going and if this somehow would downgrade the other pcies. Then I wouldn't really have a reason to change the cards.

 

[ericloewe]

I'm not sure the x8 slots can be bifurcated. But you can totally use the additional PCIe x4 slot from the PCH. That would leave you with a straight upgrade (The two missing lanes are routed to the missing NICs present in the X11SSH-LN4F, so they're wasted in the -F model. The X11SSM-F has the same four lanes routed to a standard slot).

 

[djeflig]

Thanks, that explains where those two lanes went missing. I’ve read some threads over at the truenas forum about these cards where I think I saw your name come up, by the way. X11SSM-F + AOC-SLG3-2M2 + Optane
Anyway, the x11ssm-f is on the compatibility list AOC-SLG3-2M2 | Add-on Cards | Accessories | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc. so I think that bifurcation will work.

 

[zer0sum]

I bought the X11SSM-F recently and have had a great experience with it, and chose it over the X11SSH purely because I wanted 2 x nvme drives
The first thing I did was upgrade the IPMI and Bios firmware to the most recent versions

My hardware is as follows:

• Xeon E3-1270v5 , 4 core / 8 thread, 3.6-4Ghz
• 64G ECC ram
• Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 PCIe Add-On Card (Bifurcated)
• 1TB nvme cache drive
• 2TB nvme share drive
• HP H220 LSI SAS2308 HBA
• 3 x 10TB SAS drives
• Mellanox ConnectX-3 - $20 (Ebay)
• Nvidia Quadro P400 for Plex stream transcoding
• Icydock dual 5.25" to triple 3.5" cage

I have the AOC nvme card in the top slot with the bifurcation at 4x4 in the bios.
That's the only slot you can bifurcate, so you don't get a choice and things can get tight depending on what sort of cpu cooler you are using

Then the Nvidia P400 in the x16 slot, the HBA card in the next one, and lastly the Mellanox CX3
Everything is working perfectly without any jumpers needed.

Designation: CPU SLOT7 PCI-E 3.0 X8
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: CPU SLOT6 PCI-E 3.0 X8(IN X16)
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x16

Designation: PCH SLOT5 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: PCH SLOT4 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

 

[djeflig]

I bought the X11SSM-F recently and have had a great experience with it, and chose it over the X11SSM purely because I wanted 2 x nvme drives
The first thing I did was upgrade the IPMI and Bios firmware to the most recent versions

My hardware is as follows:

• Xeon E3-1270v5 , 4 core / 8 thread, 3.6-4Ghz
• 64G ECC ram
• Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 PCIe Add-On Card (Bifurcated)
• 1TB nvme cache drive
• 2TB nvme share drive
• HP H220 LSI SAS2308 HBA
• 3 x 10TB SAS drives
• Mellanox ConnectX-3 - $20 (Ebay)
• Nvidia Quadro P400 for Plex stream transcoding
• Icydock dual 5.25" to triple 3.5" cage

I have the AOC nvme card in the top slot with the bifurcation at 4x4 in the bios.
That's the only slot you can bifurcate, so you don't get a choice and things can get tight depending on what sort of cpu cooler you are using

Then the Nvidia P400 in the x16 slot, the HBA card in the next one, and lastly the Mellanox CX3
Everything is working perfectly without any jumpers needed.

Designation: CPU SLOT7 PCI-E 3.0 X8
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: CPU SLOT6 PCI-E 3.0 X8(IN X16)
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x16

Designation: PCH SLOT5 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: PCH SLOT4 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

Thanks for the input, that sounds great! Good to see someone else with a similar setup got it to work, makes me a lot more confident that this is the way to go.

 

[djeflig]

I bought the X11SSM-F recently and have had a great experience with it, and chose it over the X11SSM purely because I wanted 2 x nvme drives
The first thing I did was upgrade the IPMI and Bios firmware to the most recent versions

My hardware is as follows:

• Xeon E3-1270v5 , 4 core / 8 thread, 3.6-4Ghz
• 64G ECC ram
• Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 PCIe Add-On Card (Bifurcated)
• 1TB nvme cache drive
• 2TB nvme share drive
• HP H220 LSI SAS2308 HBA
• 3 x 10TB SAS drives
• Mellanox ConnectX-3 - $20 (Ebay)
• Nvidia Quadro P400 for Plex stream transcoding
• Icydock dual 5.25" to triple 3.5" cage

I have the AOC nvme card in the top slot with the bifurcation at 4x4 in the bios.
That's the only slot you can bifurcate, so you don't get a choice and things can get tight depending on what sort of cpu cooler you are using

Then the Nvidia P400 in the x16 slot, the HBA card in the next one, and lastly the Mellanox CX3
Everything is working perfectly without any jumpers needed.

Designation: CPU SLOT7 PCI-E 3.0 X8
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: CPU SLOT6 PCI-E 3.0 X8(IN X16)
Type: x8 PCI Express 3 x16

Designation: PCH SLOT5 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

Designation: PCH SLOT4 PCI-E 3.0 X4(IN X8)
Type: x4 PCI Express 3 x8

Sorry to say that my plans to swap cards fell through, the x11ssm-f turned out to be broken.
But I had already ordered the aoc-slg3-2m2 card and an ssd so I thought maybe you could help me even though I'm on my x11ssh-f.
Thing is that I can't see the ssd and I don't see any option to turn on bifurcation on slot5 (the one that's supposed to support this on x11ssh-f). Did you have to change any settings on your card to see it? I've turned on AMI Native Support. The only options on the pcie are Disabled, Legacy and EFI

Update:
I’ve managed to get it to work now. I moved a couple of jumpers (JI2C1 and JI2C2) to activate smbus for pcie. Now the bifurcation option shows up in the bios under advanced/ chipset configuraton/ SA configuraton/ PEG port configuraton/ slot 5 bifurcation (4x4)

I’m not sure that the jumpers needed to be moved, maybe I just happened to find the setting after the fact. Anyways, I’ll leave it for others to read here if anyone else encounters similar problems.