Trouble installing OmniOS on X11SSH-CTF with NVME M.2 PCIe Drive

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

amp

New Member
Aug 24, 2016
15
0
1
47
Dear all,

i am not succeeding in installing Omniosce 151026 or 151022 on the Supermicro X11SSH-CTF Board.

I plan to install it to an NVME SSD.

I have the Intel SSD 760p 128GB M.2 PCIe installed on the board but the setup does not recognize it.
The reason i would like t0 install to the ssd on the M.2 port is that all other available Sata and Sas ports are connected to storage hard drives.

From reading in the froum i have seen there are issues with the NVMe Protocol Version and OmniOS. The Intel 760p is a 1.3 Version so this could be a problem. If i would get another SSD with Protocol Version 1.1 could it be recongized by the setup?
I would also go another possible solution like installing it on a drive attached to PCIe Slots or maybe an additional controller for a Sata NVME drive but no idea which is supported. I was also looking at the small Intel Optane Disks 64GB for the M.2 slots. Anybody has experience with these for installing the OS? Any other ideas? Thanks for some insights.

Installing FreeNAS 11 is working fine on the Intel 760p in the M.2 slot.

Best, Alex
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
NVMe 1.2 is supported.
1.3 may work when you uncomment

#strict-version=0;

and eventually
#ignore-unknown-vendor-status=1;

in /kernel/drv/nvme.conf

btw
As this is a real PCI-e NVMe it does not block an Sata port.
 
Last edited:

amp

New Member
Aug 24, 2016
15
0
1
47
Dear gea,

thanks for your reply.

I have actually read about this soluton before but do not know if i did right in applying it.

I have booted to the installer from a mounted ISO (via IPMI) and then chose the command line, edited the nvme.conf with VI and went back to the boot menu to option 1 to make the installer find the disks, but still no success.

Thanks for the support!
 

amp

New Member
Aug 24, 2016
15
0
1
47
dear gea,

i managed to install OmniOS 151026 on a NVMe 1.2 device.

I actually purchased two identical PCIe SSDs (Intel 600p M.2) and a Supermicro 2-Port NVme HBA AOC-SLG3-2M2-O with the intention to mirror the rpool. I installed both drives on this Add-On-Card and put it in the PCIe x8 slot.

But System only sees one of the drives. The two SSD are PCIe 3.0 x4 and the AOC sits in a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot on the X11SSH-CTF. Any hints on how to get the other drive visible?

Thanks Alex
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
A single PCI-e slot supports per default only one device.

To split the 8x lanes into 2 x 4 lanes for two devices, you need either an adapter with a PLX chip or a mainboard that supports bifurcation. The X11-SSH should support this as a setup option in the bios.
 

amp

New Member
Aug 24, 2016
15
0
1
47
Actually i can not find any option for the bifurcation on the Bios of the X11-SSH-CTF. It is supposed to be in the CPU related section of the bios but i can't find it. The Manual does not mention it either.

Maybe this is related to the fact that i installed a Pentium Gold G4560 Processor and no Xeon?

The PCIe X8 slot is connected to the CPU on LGA1151 and not the C236 chipset according to the System Block Diagram on the Manual:



The NVMe 1.3 drive finally became avaiable as a blockdev after gea mentioned i have changed /kernel/drv/nvme.conf.

Best, Alex
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,141
1,182
113
DE
There are discussions at Illumos to enable all 1,x NVMe devices per default