U.2 to M.2 adapter, I'm puzzled why only one works so far.

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Mancomb_Seepgood

New Member
Mar 18, 2022
6
0
1
Hey all! I'm in need of a drive guru to help me.

So I've got an ASUS RS500A-E11-RS12U server without the SAS controller. Only Sata & NVME. Currently it is half populated with u.2 drives and I wanted to use the m.2 nvme I had laying around to populate the rest.

So far I bought a generic amazon adapter which didn't work. My bad, it says in the description that it's for SAS and I don't have a SAS controller.

After that I got 2 of the ICYDOCK MB705M2P-B which worked! Hurray.

I decided to try another one because I was curious and the icydock is really expensive where I am. I've bought the VANTEC MRK-NVM2U2-BK. Didn't found any mention of SAS, only "NO SATA". I tought "alright, this is not a SATA m.2 that I'm plugging in, it's a proper NVME". To my surprise, it didn't work.

At that point I needed a reality check. the ICYDOCK didn't mention anything about no SATA so I was wondering if it converted my nvme to sata. But no, it's connected as an nvme on PCI.

Code:
116: PCI 00.0: 10600 Disk
  [Created at block.245]
  SysFS ID: /class/block/nvme4n1
  SysFS BusID: nvme4
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:40/0000:40:01.2/0000:41:00.0/nvme/nvme4
  Hardware Class: disk
  Model: "A Disk"
  Vendor: pci 0x1cc1 "ADATA Technology Co., Ltd."
  Device: pci 0x5236
  SubVendor: pci 0x1dbe
  SubDevice: pci 0x5236
  Driver: "nvme"
  Driver Modules: "nvme"
  Device File: /dev/nvme4n1
  [...]
Now, am I correct to assume it needs a Sata connection to recognize the drive and then connect it to pci or am I just really missing something that should be obvious?

Thanks!
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
956
359
63
Sounds like you've chosen the right hardware, there's always a chance that the adapter is broken.

Here's a couple of basic suggestions (to get it out of the way):
  1. Test the disk separately (assuming this is not already what you did) in the machine (website suggests that it has built-in m2 slots, could be an option?)
  2. Test another disk in the same bay that you are installing it into
  3. Reseat disk into enclosure and ensure nothing is shorting out the drive when it's installed
 

Mancomb_Seepgood

New Member
Mar 18, 2022
6
0
1
Hey thanks for taking the time. So following your message I tried swapping the vantec adapter with an ICYDOCK one. Same drive, same bay. It worked right away.

Code:
116: PCI 00.0: 10600 Disk
  [Created at block.245]
  SysFS ID: /class/block/nvme4n1
  SysFS BusID: nvme4
  SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.3/0000:02:00.0/nvme/nvme4
  Hardware Class: disk
  Model: "Seagate Technology PLC Disk"
  Vendor: pci 0x1bb1 "Seagate Technology PLC"
  Device: pci 0x5016
  Driver: "nvme"
  Driver Modules: "nvme"
  Device File: /dev/nvme4n1
  Device Files: /dev/nvme4n1, /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-Seagate_FireCuda_520_SSD
  [...]
I have another vantec adapter that I didn't opened yet so I tried it as well just in case and it didn't work either. Only thing I could see is that the vantec seems to be gen3, which normaly would just make the drive run at gen3 speed but maybe that's why it doesn't get detected at all?

I also tried rebooting and the drive wasn't even seen at post.
 

Mancomb_Seepgood

New Member
Mar 18, 2022
6
0
1
Alright, so to keep everyone who might be interested updated. I've reached out to Vantec directly. It seems there was a revision required on the adaptor PCB that my server needed to detect the ssd. They sent the new PCB and now it works so if you encounter the same kind of issue and you have the _DB1 board it might be because you need the _DB2 instead.