Request for help: Retrofit test server for 2.5" NVMe PCIe SSDs

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Patrick

Patrick

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Hi everyone,

By Monday I will have seven 2.5" NVMe drives sitting in the lab (3 are already here) and four of them are of the same type.

What I am trying to do is get a lab setup in place to test at least 4 drives at once (12GB/s RAID 0 maybe?)

Here is the problem: I need to add at least 4x SFF-8639 drive connectors to the test rig.

I have seen a few single drive adapters such as: High Speed Serial Cables, Adapters and Accessories from Serial Cables

Which would work, but I want them sooner, and frankly I do not think getting power and data across a chassis should cost $1200-2400 for four drives.

If anyone has ideas for a solution, it would be a huge help to STH!

Thanks,
Patrick
 
MiniKnight

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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Here's a few I found, but like nobody makes this.
ARK | Hot-swap Backplane PCIe Combination Drive Cage Kit for P4000 Server Chassis FUP8X25S3NVDK (2.5in NVMe SSD)
ARK | 1U Hot-swap Backplane Upgrade Kit with 4x NVMe SSD Support A1U44X25NVMEDK

•✿• New •✿• Standard PCI Bracket •✿• for Supermicro AOC SLG3 2E4 Nvme PCIe Card | eBay
Supermicro AOC SLG3 2E4R Nvme Card Std LP 2 Internal Nvme Ports x4 per Port | eBay
Supermicro CBL Sast 0623 Internal Minisas HD Cable for PCIe SSD Nvme 12GB s 45cm | eBay
•✿• New •✿•Low Profile PCI Bracket•✿•for Supermicro AOC SLG3 2E4 Nvme PCIe Card | eBay

Dell PowerEdge R720 R820 SSD PCI E Expansion Card 4 Port Ypnrc No Cables | eBay
PowerEdge R720 R820 PCIe Bridge Adapter for Express Flash PCIe SSDS | eBay

Maybe that last one is close but you get stuck at the backplane.

I'm shocked this is so hard. I can't believe nobody has a card, cable and mobile rack package.
 
D

dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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Patrick said:
Hi everyone,

By Monday I will have seven 2.5" NVMe drives sitting in the lab (3 are already here) and four of them are of the same type.

What I am trying to do is get a lab setup in place to test at least 4 drives at once (12GB/s RAID 0 maybe?)

Here is the problem: I need to add at least 4x SFF-8639 drive connectors to the test rig.

I have seen a few single drive adapters such as: High Speed Serial Cables, Adapters and Accessories from Serial Cables

Which would work, but I want them sooner, and frankly I do not think getting power and data across a chassis should cost $1200-2400 for four drives.

If anyone has ideas for a solution, it would be a huge help to STH!

Thanks,
Patrick
Click to expand...
Now that's my idea of a fun review. I look forward to the day when NVMe is the standard for server disks.

I rather think that you'll end up with a Supermicro 1028U-TR4T as your NVMe test platform.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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dba said:
Now that's my idea of a fun review. I look forward to the day when NVMe is the standard for server disks.

I rather think that you'll end up with a Supermicro 1028U-TR4T as your NVMe test platform.
Click to expand...
SM does have 2U platforms with 4x NVMe slots. I only had 1 drive when I had the system though (Tom's IT Pro).

I now need to recreate for myself :-/
 
Biren78

Biren78

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Jan 16, 2013
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dba said:
Now that's my idea of a fun review. I look forward to the day when NVMe is the standard for server disks.
Click to expand...
Yes. I have never seen anyone do this and can't find it on Google. I want NVMe in my SC743 SQ but that's impossible to get from what I've seen. I wouldn't mind opening it up to do the install, but that's a lot less work than going to a new system. It's cheaper for me to get NVMe drives in the local system than to try just getting the networking up for having 100GbE.
 
OBasel

OBasel

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Dec 28, 2010
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I'd want to know too. If I'm able to split x16 or x8 then I can get more pcie ssds than with slot based ones.
 
D

Dk3

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Patrick, which NVMe Pcie ssd will you highly recommend? I will like to get it for my R730xd as dell price are crazy.
 
Biren78

Biren78

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@Patrick that system looks sick. I've been reading about NVMe all day. I wonder if the Intel 750 series is going to be as expensive as the P3600 and if they're actually going to be on sale.
 
MiniKnight

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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dba said:
The best MacGyver option seems to be the four-drive x16 Dell kit for $460:
PowerEdge R720 R820 PCIe Bridge Adapter for Express Flash PCIe SSDS | eBay

A barebones chassis for 4 NVMe is around $1,800, which isn't bad, but a bit steep for just playing around.
Click to expand...
I had linked that one above. It doesn't have the backplane for the 2.5" drives. Only PCIe slots, cable and card. No backplane.

@Patrick - you could also try getting 2 of these backplanes: Supermicro BPN SAS3 116A N2 Backplane Support 8x2 5" SAS3 HDD 2x2 5" PCIe Nvme | eBay (230 ea) plus 2 AOC cards ($150 ea) + 4 cables ($40 ea):

$460 backplanes
$300 aoc
$160 cables

That's only $920. Cheaper than a server but a whole lot harder to use.
 
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T_Minus

T_Minus

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Waiting to here back about cheaper backplanes btw... I'll let you guys know.
 
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T_Minus

T_Minus

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Totally forgot I had posted in this thread when I started the other about AOC-SLG3-2E4R which I guess didn't trigger this one with the "R" at the end.

The seller never got back to me :(
 
C

Chuntzu

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Jun 30, 2013
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Not sure what the difference is between the AOC-SLG3-2E4R and the AOC-SLG3-2E4? Other than about $100. Does anyone happen to know the difference?
 
C

Chuntzu

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I was looking at that one a little while back since I have and Intel SAS jbod I could just swap the cages out and use in that chassis. Though the aoc seems to be a 16x to 4-4x pcie card. The board I'm trying to work with has 10 pcie 8x slots so was trying to get 8x - 2-4x aoc. That and the Intel 750 2.5" already comes with the sff8643 to sff8639 cable so no need for a backplane (was pretty pumped when I read that, since I was trying to source these cables 8-9 months ago and couldn't find them)
 
Z

zer0gravity

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Feb 15, 2013
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Any update on NVMe backplanes/HBA cards? I'm looking to get a VSAN setup and would love to figure out a way to hook up 4x drives on the cheap.
 
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