m.2 PCIe adapter in Supermicro x9 motherboards?

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kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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Maybe your screenshot was not taken at the right time. It was set for SLOT 1 (IIO1 IOU3), not 3 (IIO1 IOU2) ?
Correct, it's in Slot 1 right now after trying slot 3 earlier. Maybe reset to default and try again.

-- Yes, I tried Legacy :SanDisk to boot also.
 

metag

Member
Apr 26, 2016
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Correct, it's in Slot 1 right now after trying slot 3 earlier. Maybe reset to default and try again.

-- Yes, I tried Legacy :SanDisk to boot also.
Sorry to hear that. The only thing I don't see you try is a Windows setup. Other than that, I start to wonder whether you have a defective card...
 

kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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Sorry to hear that. The only thing I don't see you try is a Windows setup. Other than that, I start to wonder whether you have a defective card...
I'll try with a windows set. I can confirm the SSD's work individually but the ASUS x370-pro wasn't able to find the hyper card. Doesn't look like the board is compatible though so it's not really a good test.
 

kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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booted to Windows 10, no drives. Amazon is going to send a replacement and I'll try again. :/
 

james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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kron any update on this? im hoping to test this out on a x9dr3-ln4f+ myself (not with unraid os though)

on a side note, how are people using all these m.2 format nvme drives in the server/DC environment (ie the m.2 u.2 intel optane drives?) is it all pcie cards that fit 1/2/4x of the m.2s? clearly we are not seeing server boards with more than 1 or 2x m.2 nvme slots, yet i see patrick (and others in enterprise) talking about optane and m.2 , but how are they being interfaced with servers (when its a m.2 and not a AIC/pcie card)?
tks
 
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kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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Nope, no update. Received the replacement board and just never installed it. Went with a standard 1tb ssd instead because I honestly didn't need that speed for Unraid.
 

bood

New Member
Mar 20, 2019
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Yes, I have it working on my x9dri-ln4f+. Just make sure you set the correct slot up because the sequence number of the bifurcation settings (IOU# as shown in frogtech's screenshot above) is not the same as the PCI slot #, at least on the x9dri IIRC.

I loaded my Asus Hyper M2 x4 card with 4 HP 1TB ex920. They were then setup as a simple stripe disk in Windows Server 2016 storage space. Here are the CrystalDiskMark result:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2018 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 5018.222 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 3461.086 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1055.939 MB/s [ 257797.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 800.416 MB/s [ 195414.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 190.762 MB/s [ 46572.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 151.539 MB/s [ 36996.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 57.158 MB/s [ 13954.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 110.048 MB/s [ 26867.2 IOPS]
Test : 1024 MiB [H: 0.9% (35.6/3807.9 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2018/11/03 9:48:58
OS : Windows Server 2016 Server Standard (full installation) [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

I noticed the Random R/W 4K Q32T1 numbers are much lower than the numbers published here for the same disk. The number is similar when tested on single disk so it is not storage space issue. My server configuration is dual Xeon E5-2630 with 128GB memory, which I think should be more than enough. So I wonder whether that is a limitation of bifurcation in general or just the ASUS card. For $59, I probably should not expect more.
How did you do it?

I have V2 of the ASUS card, double checked that I enabled bifurcation on the correct port/slot by referring to the block diagram for my X9DRi-F (X9DR3-F would also apply, difference is just in the SCU). Set it to 4x4x4x4, installed an Intel 760p and two Samsung 950 PRO in Slots 1-3 of the adapter. Only the 760p shows up. HWiNFO reflects the change because that slot now only shows 4x as the maximum lane width, but the "new" roots never show up.

It must support bifurcation at some level, some of the slots on the board itself are already splitting up some lanes with other onboard peripherals.

On the latest 3.3 BIOS. Even went one step further and followed Win-RAID instructions for modding the BIOS.
 

karsten

New Member
Sep 7, 2019
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sorry to revive an old thread but was just trying to get this to work on a X9DRi-F board with a Asus Hyper x4 card too but couldn't get it to work. I tried Intel and HP drives in various combinations. I remembered Asus has a v2 version of their card and was wondering what version yours was? Mine is v1 and maybe v2 would work? just an idea thanks.



Yes, I have it working on my x9dri-ln4f+. Just make sure you set the correct slot up because the sequence number of the bifurcation settings (IOU# as shown in frogtech's screenshot above) is not the same as the PCI slot #, at least on the x9dri IIRC.

I loaded my Asus Hyper M2 x4 card with 4 HP 1TB ex920. They were then setup as a simple stripe disk in Windows Server 2016 storage space. Here are the CrystalDiskMark result:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2018 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 5018.222 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 3461.086 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 1055.939 MB/s [ 257797.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T= 8) : 800.416 MB/s [ 195414.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 190.762 MB/s [ 46572.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 151.539 MB/s [ 36996.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 57.158 MB/s [ 13954.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 110.048 MB/s [ 26867.2 IOPS]
Test : 1024 MiB [H: 0.9% (35.6/3807.9 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2018/11/03 9:48:58
OS : Windows Server 2016 Server Standard (full installation) [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

I noticed the Random R/W 4K Q32T1 numbers are much lower than the numbers published here for the same disk. The number is similar when tested on single disk so it is not storage space issue. My server configuration is dual Xeon E5-2630 with 128GB memory, which I think should be more than enough. So I wonder whether that is a limitation of bifurcation in general or just the ASUS card. For $59, I probably should not expect more.
 

metag

Member
Apr 26, 2016
64
16
8
sorry to revive an old thread but was just trying to get this to work on a X9DRi-F board with a Asus Hyper x4 card too but couldn't get it to work. I tried Intel and HP drives in various combinations. I remembered Asus has a v2 version of their card and was wondering what version yours was? Mine is v1 and maybe v2 would work? just an idea thanks.
Not a problem. Since that post, I had tried the Asus card (another one bought recently from Amazon) on a X9DRi-F+ and another X9DRi-LN4F+. It did not work on the F+ (after trying every PCIE slots, I believe), but works on the LN4F+.

Along with results reported by previous post and yours, I think it is safe to say the Asus card is not compatible with X9DRi-F+ or X9DRi-F+ does not support bifurcation properly.

To provide more context:

Asus Hyper M2 card purchase date: 2018-10 (probably v1?)
MB: X9DRi-LN4F+ (rev unknown), with V1 CPU installed
OS: Windows
Result: works

Asus Hyper M2 card purchase date: 2019-08 (probably v2?)
MB: X9DRi-LN4F+ (rev 1.20a), with V2 CPU installed
OS: FreeNAS, Ubuntu
Result: works

Asus Hyper M2 card purchase date: 2019-08 (probably v2?)
MB: X9DRi-F+ (rev 1.11a), with V2 CPU installed
OS: FreeNAS, Ubuntu
Result: does not work
 
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metag

Member
Apr 26, 2016
64
16
8
How did you do it?

I have V2 of the ASUS card, double checked that I enabled bifurcation on the correct port/slot by referring to the block diagram for my X9DRi-F (X9DR3-F would also apply, difference is just in the SCU). Set it to 4x4x4x4, installed an Intel 760p and two Samsung 950 PRO in Slots 1-3 of the adapter. Only the 760p shows up. HWiNFO reflects the change because that slot now only shows 4x as the maximum lane width, but the "new" roots never show up.

It must support bifurcation at some level, some of the slots on the board itself are already splitting up some lanes with other onboard peripherals.

On the latest 3.3 BIOS. Even went one step further and followed Win-RAID instructions for modding the BIOS.
Sorry, just saw your quote. Please see my response above.
 

bood

New Member
Mar 20, 2019
10
3
3
Sorry, just saw your quote. Please see my response above.
Thank you, I actually just checked back into this thread to reply to the other comment and confirm that the V2 version of the card didn't work for me.
 

bood

New Member
Mar 20, 2019
10
3
3
sorry to revive an old thread but was just trying to get this to work on a X9DRi-F board with a Asus Hyper x4 card too but couldn't get it to work. I tried Intel and HP drives in various combinations. I remembered Asus has a v2 version of their card and was wondering what version yours was? Mine is v1 and maybe v2 would work? just an idea thanks.
Nope lol. I tried the v2 in my X9DRi-F on the latest BIOS. I can get it to see one SSD only. Tried every combination of slots and bifurcation setting in the BIOS. Keeping it for if/when I build a Ryzen desktop or upgrade the server to a v4 Xeon.
 

IMI4tth3w

New Member
Sep 27, 2019
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Nope lol. I tried the v2 in my X9DRi-F on the latest BIOS. I can get it to see one SSD only. Tried every combination of slots and bifurcation setting in the BIOS. Keeping it for if/when I build a Ryzen desktop or upgrade the server to a v4 Xeon.
Same here. X9DRi-F with AOC-SLG3-2M2 dual nvme. only 1 drive is being detected in unraid.

tried lots of different slots. all the bifurcation settings. dual e5 2620 v1s. bios v3.3. nothing getting both to work
 

kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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After attempting this last year I gave up after trying all of the configurations possible with 3 slots already taken. Slot 3 was open and had enough room between to cover so I figured I'd start there again. Inserted 2 Intel 660p 1tb SSD to slot 1 & 2 of the asus adapter and placed that on slot 3. Opened the BIOS like before and updated slot 3 to 4x4x4x4 with no other change, reboot. It works, nothing changed with the board in this time. Can't explain it and it's been running smooth for about a month. I'll check more details on the board/bios after I move the rack.
 

gsrcrxsi

Active Member
Dec 12, 2018
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After attempting this last year I gave up after trying all of the configurations possible with 3 slots already taken. Slot 3 was open and had enough room between to cover so I figured I'd start there again. Inserted 2 Intel 660p 1tb SSD to slot 1 & 2 of the asus adapter and placed that on slot 3. Opened the BIOS like before and updated slot 3 to 4x4x4x4 with no other change, reboot. It works, nothing changed with the board in this time. Can't explain it and it's been running smooth for about a month. I'll check more details on the board/bios after I move the rack.
on which board? X9DRi-F? or X9DRi-LN4F+?

I have an -LN4F+ (v1.20) and just updated the BIOS, it looks like all the options are there. even the x8 slots can be broken to x4/x4.

but I also have an X9DRi-F, X9DRX+-F, X9DAE, and X9DAi. It would be nice if I could enable bifuraction on any of these boards also (especially the DRX). Do any other X9 boards support this other than the X9DRi-LN4F+?
 

kron

New Member
Nov 12, 2018
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From Unraid's dashboard it's reading as LN4+ but I believe it was a LN4F+ and I'll have to confirm that the next time I open the case.

Supermicro X9DRi-LN4+/X9DR3-LN4+, Version REV:1.20A
 

Mustung

New Member
Apr 7, 2020
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1
1
This is definitely the place I am looking for X9DRi-LN4F+ Rev 1.20A bifurcation.

I tried setting all 16x slots to x4x4x4x4 with both cpu slots populated by E5 2620V2, but still only one device shows up in ubuntu. There shouldn't be any jumper settings involved, right?

I even begin to wonder if some hidden damage in CPU or contaminated pins could result in this bifurcation malfunctioning. I know that is close to witch hunting...
 

metag

Member
Apr 26, 2016
64
16
8
This is definitely the place I am looking for X9DRi-LN4F+ Rev 1.20A bifurcation.

I tried setting all 16x slots to x4x4x4x4 with both cpu slots populated by E5 2620V2, but still only one device shows up in ubuntu. There shouldn't be any jumper settings involved, right?

I even begin to wonder if some hidden damage in CPU or contaminated pins could result in this bifurcation malfunctioning. I know that is close to witch hunting...
No jumper involved. Given what others reported in this thread, I think bifurcation on those boards, if working at all, is pretty fragile. I would recommend you to turn on bifurcation only on the slot with the card installed, and then try each of those slots.