NVMe cabling on Supermicro H12SSW-NT

[vrod]

Hi folks,

Managed to get an ep(y)c deal on a 1U Supermicro server. Now, I've had this brand before but it's been a while so I had to get familiar with the system again.. So here's my problem... System specs:

- H12SSW-NT board with onboard slimsas for nvme
- Chassis is a " SuperChassis 116AC2-R706WB2 "

The backplane has 2 extra connectors for NVMe, reading that I should rather get the supermicro slimsas cables for this, I went ahead and ordered CABL-SAST-0803.. However connecting this cable with the "NVME0/1" connector onboard does not yield any results.

I had a Intel P3600 laying around, this does not show up anywhere, I don't even see the led's come on. I feel the drive get warm though, so it must be getting power.

I am unable to find out which cable is actually required for this anywhere, would someone here know?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[ano]

did you toggle it to nvme in bios?

 

[vrod]

Hey,

I decided it might be a good idea to ask the supermicro support... Turns out that the CABL-SAST-0803 is only for SAS/SATA. The cable needed was the CBL-SAST-0826. I ordered it now and will check if it works... Then I will use the CABL-SAST-0803 for the onboard sata controller

 

[vrod]

I just wanted to update topic, the new cable made the nvme's work

 

[sam55todd]

Chasing the tale with those consistently progressing SFF-8639/8643/8644/8654 U.2/Mini-SAS/SlimSAS 8i OCuLink MCIO etc. standards do make whole build experience quite unpleasant unfortunately, unless you're ready spend significant amount on branded orders (despite behind it mostly just channeling PCIe lines).

 

[vrod]

Yes I have to say that I like the simplicity of HPE/Dell/Lenovo. I have worked with that stuff much more. But I suppose once you get into the Supermicro stuff a bit, it gets easier as well.

 

[Vader]

this is really hard to understand with the Supermicro cabling options. I have a X12SPI-TF with slim line SAS Connector for 2 NVMe drives on Boad and want to connect it to the hybrid backplane BPN-SAS3-826EL1-N4 which supports 4 NVMe U.2 drives and has SFF-8643 mini SAS connectors. I only need 2 U.2 drives. So as I suppose the cable CBL-SAST-0826 would work here as well?

I am also courious about signaling quality and data integrity, are there any issues with U.2 drives in such a configuration? I am about to build a cost and power efficiency server solution with a bunch of SATA SSDs and some high performance NVMe storage for database applications and so on. I want to keep it as simple as possible and don't want to use extra HBAs or RAID Controllers for the U.2 drives, simple mirror with storage spaces is more than sufficient.