Dell NVME SSD PCIe Extender Controller Compatibility -P31H2

[Love4Storage]

Hi all

Does anyone know if the Dell PCIe Extender works with non Dell motherboards with TrueNas?
I'm transitioning from 2.5 SAS drives to U.2 NVMe drives and am looking for HBAs that will work with my Supermicro Xeon-D ITX board (X10SDV-4C-TLN2F).

I have a Dell PCIe Extender (DP/N:P31H2) but it doesn't work with generic SFF8643 cables I bought from China, so I'm thinking I have to use the Dell cables it comes with or it doesn't work at all. Has anyone had any successful experience with this card?

The Supermicro AOC-SLG3-4E4R looks like an option but my board isn't under the verified compatibility list and I hear I have to use supermicro cables which are not so cheap. Is this the only other option if I want a 4 port NVMe HBA? I hear the Broadcom tri-mode 9 series has 4 ports but only 2 can be used for NVMe and the other two for sas/sata. Also it is limited to 8 PCIe gen3 lanes.

Thank!

 

[rvassar]

That's a 13G part. I'm doubtful.

 

[firesyde424]

Good question. I'd suspect that your specific issue is likely the cables or the backplane.

We have several SAS based R740xd and also an NVME based R740xd. It's possible the cables are different. Give me a some time to look up the part numbers and I'll get back to you.

 

[firesyde424]

So the model number of the cables for our SAS based servers is JTKYP which is described as "Mini SAS HD SFF-8643". The PCIE version is a different part number of "XW06Y". I wasn't able to find a lot of information about it, however, the description is entirely different and I suspect it might be required, not for the Dell specific card, but for for NVME backplanes in general.