Supermicro H13SSL-NT with CSE-216BE1C-R920LPB Chassis

[OpticTygre]

Hi all. Server hardware noob here, piecing together a new system. Thanks for any help this community might be able to provide.

I have a Supermicro SuperChassis 216BE1C-R920LPB, in which I would like to place an H13SSL-NT motherboard. The chassis contains the BPN-SAS3-216EL1 backplane, with a single primary daughter card. This card has two MiniSAS cables (CBL-SAST-0532). I plan on using Samsung PM9A3 SSD drives in this system.

The motherboard does not inherently have SAS connectors; it is SATA or NVMe (via MCIO connectors?). My questions are: Do I need to purchase an HBA to connect the backplane to the motherboard, or is there a different setup I can use to connect the existing backplane directly to the motherboard, via MCIO or other connectors? Is there another backplane for this chassis that could be purchased that would better suit the H13SSL-NT motherboard?

Thank you again for any insight and knowledge you can provide! I'm very new to all of this!

-Jason

 

[BlueFox]

Those are NVMe drives and you have a SAS backplane. It's not going to work no matter what you do. You're either getting another chassis or using SAS/SATA SSDs.

 

[mattventura]

You could buy a SAS HBA and use SAS drives, but you'd need to upgrade to a backplane that supports NVMe if you wanted to use NVMe drives.

If you only need two NVMe drives, you can also get the rear 2x NVMe hotswap cage.

 

[OpticTygre]

Understood, and thanks for the replies! I assume the BPN-NVMe3-216N-S4 would be the correct backplane if I wanted to swap it out?

 

[NablaSquaredG]

BPN-NVMe3-216N-S4

I'd recommend BPN-NVME5-HS219N-S24, which is a PCIE5.0 backplane tailored for H13 series (you won't need ugly MCIO to SFF8643 adapters and can instead use official MCIO-MCIO cables)

 

[mattventura]

I'd recommend BPN-NVME5-HS219N-S24, which is a PCIE5.0 backplane tailored for H13 series (you won't need ugly MCIO to SFF8643 adapters and can instead use official MCIO-MCIO cables)

Can you actually find these for sale anywhere? I've only found the LFF equivalent (BPN-NVME5-LA26A-S12).

 

[NablaSquaredG]

Can you actually find these for sale anywhere? I've only found the LFF equivalent (BPN-NVME5-LA26A-S12).

not publicly, but a good Supermicro distributor should be able to sell you some (one of mine has them listed below 500 bucks)

 

[OpticTygre]

I'd recommend BPN-NVME5-HS219N-S24

I appreciate that! All my searching, and I wasn't aware that these existed yet. I'll have to start making some cold calls to find one. Thank you for the help!

 

[OpticTygre]

but a good Supermicro distributor should be able to sell you some

So far I've had no luck finding that backplane without it being attached to a full system. That said, if I were to purchase the BPN-NVMe3-216N-S4 backplane instead, what style cable would be required to connect the backplane to the MCIO ports on the H13? The manual for that backplane only mentions that it's an Oculink cable, but not a particular standard/size.

UPDATE: I think I would need something that does SFF-8611(Oculink) to SFF-TA-1016(MCIO) (if it even exists). Does that sound correct?

 

[mattventura]

So far I've had no luck finding that backplane without it being attached to a full system. That said, if I were to purchase the BPN-NVMe3-216N-S4 backplane instead, what style cable would be required to connect the backplane to the MCIO ports on the H13? The manual for that backplane only mentions that it's an Oculink cable, but not a particular standard/size.

UPDATE: I think I would need something that does SFF-8611(Oculink) to SFF-TA-1016(MCIO) (if it even exists). Does that sound correct?

The backplane has one Oculink per drive, so they should be x4. You'd want an MCIO 8i to 2x Oculink 4i for each pair of drives.

 

[ano]

you can get MCIO stuff made custom, we got to slimline, cost a fortune though