Looking for RAID Controller to Configure NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 as a Single NVMe Drive (Not SATA/SAS)

[maskhidden]

I'm seeking a raid controller that can configure 4 NVMe SSDs in a RAID 0 array to appear as a single NVMe drive, rather than as a SATA/SAS drive. Are there any options you know of? Looking more so for an hardware option first before going the route of a complex SPDK config. My search so far hasn't been successful. Thanks fam!

 

[mrpasc]

Highpoint NVME Raid Controller
Several models for Gen3 and Gen4, several form factors (U.2, M.2) but one common thing: priceeeeey.

 

[CyklonDX]

I've tried Highpoint nvme raid controller, its messy (or at least was when i tried it before pcie4)
They claim hardware raid - i saw the "raid" disk, as well each of the nvme's individually - and i could access them individually as i pleased.
- it looked more like some software raid. (and documentation was in chinese.)

Tri-point controllers supports nvme/u.2 in raid1 or 0 only. (controller needs to be raid mode, not hba)

 

[BLinux]

The Broadcom 9560-16i that was sent to me works pretty well. But it's not cheap either.

 

[mrpasc]

Does it still kind of „NVME over SAS“ like the 94xx Tri-band or plain PCIE NVME?

 

[BLinux]

Does it still kind of „NVME over SAS“ like the 94xx Tri-band or plain PCIE NVME?

I'm not sure what that means, but it is a Tri-Mode controller. The card seems to create a virtual PCIe switch, and the NVMe drives are connected via that. It performs decently well for RAID of NVMe drives, but there is always limitation of PCIe bandwidth since you're running everything through a single card with PCIe 4.0 x8. Benchmarks are shown in above video if you want to see the details and I compare HW RAID-0 (using 9560-16i) vs SW RAID-0 (no controller).

 

[nexox]

I'm not sure what that means, but it is a Tri-Mode controller.

The 9400 generation tri-mode controllers present arrays as SAS devices, so if, like the OP, you really need to use NVMe for whichever reason, they're not suitable. I guess the question is whether the 9500 series does the same or presents an NVMe device to the host.

 

[BLinux]

The 9400 generation tri-mode controllers present arrays as SAS devices, so if, like the OP, you really need to use NVMe for whichever reason, they're not suitable. I guess the question is whether the 9500 series does the same or presents an NVMe device to the host.

Thanks for elaborating. Then it is the same as the 9400 generation. In Linux, the RAID shows up as /dev/sdX, not /dev/nvmeXnY.

 

[i386]

I don't think such a raid controller exists, microchip and broadcom use "ancient" (and known working/stable) stacks/ip for their controllers. Nvme is "too new" to entirely change these stacks

 

[CyklonDX]

I'd say if OP doesn't need it to boot, just use software approach.