.....So I'm trying to get a deal worked out on one of the Supermicro boards that supports 24+ NVME drives..
Before you guys start hammering on me:
1. I know they use a proprietary form factor
2. I've seen Supermicro's disclaimer:
"Due to the complexity of integration, this product is sold as completely assembled systems only (with minimum 2 CPU, 4 DIMM and 6 NVMe). Please contact your Supermicro sales rep for special requirements."
3. I recognize that whatever it is I'm doing probably doesn't
require 24x+ NVMe drives...
4. etc. etc. etc.....
That being said, SM's high end NVMe storage solutions appear to accomplish this using the following method/components:
For 24x NVMe:
-1x BPN-SAS3-826TQ-B2B (obtainable): "2-port 2U SAS3 12Gbps backplane, support up to 2x 2.5-inch SAS3/SATA3 HDD/SSD"
-1x BPN-NVME3-216EB (No Source Found): "BPN-NVMe3-216A-S4 Backplane Base Board"
-1x AOC-2UR6N4-i4XT-P (obtainable): "2U Ultra Riser with 4-port 10GbE RJ45 (10GBase-T)"
http://www.supermicro.com/a_images/products/Accessories/AOC-2UR6N4-i4XT.jpg
-2x BPN-NVME3-216EL (No Source Found): "PCIe Gen3x16 input to PLX9765 to support 12x NVMe port" ...Although this simply looks like an NVMe expander similar to what you'd see on a
BPN-SAS3-216EL1, but for NVMe
-4x CBL-SAST-0819 (Obtainable): "OCuLink v.91,INT,PCIe NVMe SSD, 65CM,34AWG"
-4x CBL-SAST-0820 (Obtainable): "OCuLink v.91,INT,PCIe NVMe SSD, 85CM,34AWG"
-1x RSC-U2N4-6 (Obtainable ~$80 new): "2U Ultra Riser Card with 4 NVME and PCI-Ex16,RoHS/REACH"
-1x RSC-R1UW-E8R (Obtainable ~$40 new): "RSC-R1UW-E8R-O-P"
....They also make this 1u ultra riser which supports 6x oculink NVMe ports
(AOC-URN6-i2XT)...
As well as this AOC which includes 4x oculink, plx, and is both cheap and available
(AOC-SLG3-4E4T):
And this AOC w/2x oculink.. even cheaper and available
(AOC-SLG3-2E4T):
Regarding the
1x BPN-NVME3-216EB and
2x BPN-NVME3-216EL: There are several commonly available SuperMicro 2.5" combo back planes available which support both SAS3 and some quantity of NVMe (e.g. the
BPN-SAS3-216A-N4 2U). This is a similar approach to what Intel seems to currently offer, but in a less modular approach..
Then I stumbled across the following user's manual for the
(BPN-NVMe3-216A-N4 2U):
https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-NVMe3-216A-N4.pdf
The nomenclature for the other combo back planes usually specifies the number of NVMe slots using the "-N*" at the end of the PN which threw me off a bit in this case...
An interesting excerpt from the manual:
....I found it very interesting that the parts list for the pre-configured SM chassis list:
1x BPN-SAS3-826TQ-B2B
1x BPN-NVME3-216EB
2x BPN-NVME3-216EL
Whereas the user manual suggests that
1x BPN-NVME3-216EB + 2x BPN-NVME3-216EL = 1x BPN-NVMe3-216A-N4...
Could it be that, because the
BPN-SAS3-826TQ-B2B is simply a TQ pass through, it's just being relabeled/re-purposed in combination with the
BPN-NVME3-216EB & BPN-NVME3-216EL cards? If so, I see the BPN-SAS3-826TQ's steeply increasing in value.. This might also lead one to believe that the 216EB and 216EL cards (or possibly the 9400-16i/3840a) might work in combination with other SAS3 TQ backplanes...
May have to start an initiative to corner the 2nd had TQ market!