U.2 NVMe with Tri-Mode 9440-8i and SAS/SATA Backplane

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saravalkyrie

New Member
Mar 7, 2021
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I've a feeling this isn't a working config but hopefully someone with a bit more experience can provide a conclusive answer here.

We're in the middle of building out a new Hyperconverged cluster and the plan is to use NVMe drives where possible. We can't seem to find any 2U Chassis through our UK suppliers that directly support U.2 drives however, my understanding is the U.2 connection on the drive is backwards compatible with a SAS/SATA connector.

If this is the case, is using a standard 2U Server case with generic SAS connections on the backplane (Mini-SAS HD Out) with one of these 9440-8i Tri-Mode HBA's possible?

Alternatively if anyone knows where we can get hold of a 2U chassis that supports the intel 2.5" DC P3500 drives please let me know.
 

j_h_o

Active Member
Apr 21, 2015
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California, US
Is your question a) what chassis/backplanes support U.2 NVMe drives, or b) how do I get one from UK suppliers?
I can help with the former, but I won't be any help with the latter :)

No, I don't believe you will be successful using a SAS3 backplane with these drives; I confess I haven't ever attempted this, though.
 

nasbdh9

Active Member
Aug 4, 2019
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U.2 connector does not support SAS and SATA
Only U.3 can support NVMe/SAS/SATA in one connector
 

jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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I am currently using a tyan server with 2 x 7742 amd epyc rome cpus. I am using a combination of pcie 4.0 and 3.0 nvme drives. the server is relatively inexpensive and you can buy barebones. it supports nvme, sas and sata. It is a little over $2Kusd. the model # is
Transport HX TS75-B8252