X10SRi-F and NVME Boot, Possible?

[LIGISTX]

Hi guys, I am not very familiar with how NVMe is handled for booting, but I just ordered a X10SRi-F for a homelab upgrade and figured if I can get a PCIe card to slot a NVMe SSD into, I’d prefer this for my proxmox host and it’s VM’s over a SATA ssd.

That said, I don’t fully understand how to determine if it can actually boot from this device. I do build desktops, have for 15+ years, but I’ll be honest I have been slightly confused by NVMe and it’s comparability since it’s release many years ago. The X10SRi-F has UEFI, but I am not certain if it has whatever is required to boot from a PCIe NVMe device, and looking at the manual and poking around forum threads has not really helped my understand. I did come across some posts about “making any mobo including legacy bios boards boot from NVMe with clover bootloader” etc, but as a server I more want to just “be stable and work”, I am not sure this route is right for me, nor is editing the BIOS imo which is another option I found.

Does anyone know if this board will natively boot from NVMe on a PCIe add on riser card?

 

[RageBone]

Yes it will.
It depends a very slight bit on the Bios version and the SSD used.
I think Supermicro for a time only really made Intel ssds work since that were the only ones they sold themself?
But that time i think is long over, they also sell samsung ssds now for a while already and in all the bios versions i looked at,
you can switch between oem drivers and AMI general NVME drivers that should allow all NVME conforming ssds to work.
If the SSD does not get detected in the end, try a different pcie slot, sometimes those boards are finicky.

 

[RolloZ170]

Important:
BIOS>Advanced>PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration>NVMe Firmware Source set to AMI Native Support

AOC-SLG3-2M2

 

[LIGISTX]

Yes it will.
It depends a very slight bit on the Bios version and the SSD used.
I think Supermicro for a time only really made Intel ssds work since that were the only ones they sold themself?
But that time i think is long over, they also sell samsung ssds now for a while already and in all the bios versions i looked at,
you can switch between oem drivers and AMI general NVME drivers that should allow all NVME conforming ssds to work.
If the SSD does not get detected in the end, try a different pcie slot, sometimes those boards are finicky.

That’s for the info!

Important:
BIOS>Advanced>PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration>NVMe Firmware Source set to AMI Native Support

AOC-SLG3-2M2

Oh that’s fantastic, they actually make a first party card. Any idea if any NVMe riser board (silver stone makes one for half the price) would work? Not that 50 bucks on eBay is an excessive price, but 25 bucks is a pretty good value.

 

[RolloZ170]

Any idea if any NVMe riser board (silver stone makes one for half the price) would work?

board+cpu+memory $1000, then they start to cry about 50 bucks. no comment.

 

[LIGISTX]

board+cpu+memory $1000, then they start to cry about 50 bucks. no comment.

I mean…. Money is money, keeping more of it in your pocket is always the smart play…..

Also, I built this for way less then a grand. A 50 dollar PCIe riser would be almost 15% of the cost. Not trying to claim that as “expensive”, but hey, money in your pocket beats money wasted.

 

[RolloZ170]

Not trying to claim that as “expensive”

voltage regulators for the SSD, redrivers, two SSD, auto bifurcation.
try the silverstone and report if it works.

 

[RageBone]

i have had good experiences with the Alphacool*? kryo M.2 Cards.
I have some of the 5$ chinesium m.2 adapters as well and i can say that they do their job.
They could be made better in a few places but the SSDs i put in there worked and i have not noticed any issues.
EDIT: Those are single, dial and quad is a totally different story.
Be aware that quad m.2 Cards from Asus and others cost about 50 new

 

[RageBone]

@RolloZ170 what do you mean with "auto bifurcation"? I know what the latter is but "auto" with it?
The linked card does not have PLX chip and i would associate that with the "Auto"

 

[LIGISTX]

I have some of the 5$ chinesium m.2

I wouldn’t try chinesium… I’d at least go with a name that is know like Silverstone, and I didn’t know alphacool had them as well.

voltage regulators for the SSD, redrivers, two SSD, auto bifurcation.
try the silverstone and report if it works.

Hmm, if you can expand in this, there may be value in getting this vs a standard card… I would think bifurcation would be to allow both slots to work, correct? What is “redrivers”?

 

[RedX1]

Hello

If you do not need to Bifurcate the components below work well.

I have 2 X10SRI-F servers that have been running for 3+ years. They boot from Toshiba XG6 Drives (SM Recommended) from the HP SSD PCI-E To M.2 Controller Adapter Card 742006-002 MS-4365.

These adaptor cards are modified for Non-HP use by removing a resistor as mentioned in this thread.

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-hp-z-turbo-drive-g2-512gb.21195/#post-213759


HP SSD PCI-E To M.2 Controller Adapter Card 742006-002 MS-4365 (eBay Search)



I have several other servers booting from Chinese NVME adaptors. I look for those which have the protection capacitor as pictured below. This style is too tall for use in a 1U server.

M.2 NVME SSD to PCIe 4.0 X4 Adapter Card with Copper Cooling Best Heats HoZKSK (eBay Search)



For use in a 1U server application these work well, but do not have the protection capacitor.


PCIe NVMe M.2 NGFF SSD to PCI-E PCI express 3.0 x4 x8 x16 adapter card conv_PX (eBay Search)


I hope this helps.



Have fun.



RedX1

 

[RolloZ170]

what do you mean with "auto bifurcation"?

if you put this card in a (supported)supermicro the BIOS (auto)bifurcates the Slot to x4x4

 

[UhClem]

voltage regulators for the SSD, redrivers, two SSD, auto bifurcation. ...

redrivers ? Are you sure?

 

[RolloZ170]

redrivers ? Are you sure?

no, but what is this ?

PIC

 

[UhClem]

Maybe that's the SM special "name tag" (whose presence to the BIOS allows the AUTO-bifur [& bootable?])?

My redriver "doubts" (just conjecture):
1. SM marketing would have bragged about it.
2. SM uses 2 (x4) redriver chips on the SLG3-2E4R, and more auxiliary support circuitry
3. This "suspect" has too few pins (for 8 channels)

A plus for this card is that it accomodates 110mm M.2

 

[LIGISTX]

no, but what is this ?

View attachment 21345PIC

I ended up snagging two on eBay for 40 bucks each, one for each box. Thanks for the help, now I guess I need to research what redrivers are (even if this doesn’t have it) as I am just curious what that even is…

Server world has all sorts of new fun terminology and technologies I have not previously been exposed to. Like the fact the mobo’s I ordered may need BIOS updates to work with a 2660 v4, and I guess you can do that over IPMI, if you have a SM provided key? Confusing, but interesting and potentially quite useful.

 

[RolloZ170]

My redriver "doubts" (just conjecture):

sorry: its a retimer of yourse.

 

[RageBone]

i still second that the SM dual m.2 card likely doesn't have a retimer because of its low pincount and the visible traces leaving it.
On a surface look, it appears like a i2c expander to me, or something pcie clock splitt thingymagic.

i think a riser i have here has an identical chip. Shall i look up the markings?

 

[RolloZ170]

i think a riser i have here has an identical chip. Shall i look up the markings?

if its the SAME chip why not.

 

[RolloZ170]

still second that the SM dual m.2 card likely doesn't have a retimer because of its low pincount and the visible traces leaving it.
On a surface look, it appears like a i2c expander to me, or something pcie clock splitt thingymagic.

found a better image of the rev.1.01

PIC