X9DRL-iF anyone had success bifurcating?

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texmurphy

New Member
Oct 18, 2021
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I only need two drives, but even that doesn't seem to work. Am I doing something wrong? I chose x4x4x4x4 and installed the card into SLOT 6, the top most slot that's closest to the CPUs (I've tried them all really but this is the one that i'd think should have worked).

IMG_1976.jpg
 

RolloZ170

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2016
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I chose x4x4x4x4 and installed the card into SLOT 6
the X9DRL-iF do not have a x16 PCIe slot, wrong BIOS ?
edit:
CPU1 Slot5 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3]
CPU1 Slot5 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3] <- second same as above ? must i understand this ?
CPU1 Slot6 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3]
CPU1 Slot6 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3] <- second same as above ? must i understand this ?
 
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texmurphy

New Member
Oct 18, 2021
12
0
1
the X9DRL-iF do not have a x16 PCIe slot, wrong BIOS ?
edit:
CPU1 Slot5 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3]
CPU1 Slot5 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3] <- second same as above ? must i understand this ?
CPU1 Slot6 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3]
CPU1 Slot6 PCI-E 3.0 Link Speed [GEN3] <- second same as above ? must i understand this ?
It just means one IOU controls two physical x8 ports. So you can slice it to x4x4, x4x4. Or x4x4,x8. Or x8,x4x4, or x8x8. Any way it doesn't work, it's nice to have that option but in the context of this NVME splitter it just doesn't work.
 

RolloZ170

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2016
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i see e different X9DRL-iF boards. one with Slot6 = x16, and the other Slot6 = x8
the manual lacks information about IOU2 & IOU3 ( IIO 1 PCIe Port Bifurcation Control )
 

gkovacs

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Jun 17, 2021
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I tried everything, but was unable to get bifurcation working on the X9DRL-iF with Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2M2 cards inserted into the X8 slots and set to X4X4 in the BIOS. Regardless of booting legacy of UEFI, the bifurcation setting did not do anything in BIOS version 3.3, Linux only saw a single M.2 SSD in the slots.

OTOH I had complete success with bifurcation on the X9DRi-LN4F with the same Supermicro cards, but it required downloading BIOS version 3.4. Unfortunately, due to it being an EOL product, Supermicro said they are not going to release a fixed BIOS for the X9DRL-iF, even though it would likely be an easy fix.

A not too expensive solution would be to use an Asmedia ASM2824 based adapter card instead of the AOC, these are available for around 150-200 USD/EUR and provice the same functionality without the need for bifurcation support on the motherboard:

Lycom DT-130

Ableconn PEXM2-130
 
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