topic Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support in Solid State Drives (NAND)

Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

PSash — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 10:31:07 GMT

Hi Team,

Is anybody aware whether P3600 can be configured in RAID using Dell H730P or RAID can be configured only from the software i,e. OS.

We have Dell server with 12 PCIe SSD HDD and customer wants to configure RAID from hardware RAID controller. When we checked found RAID controller card doesnt detected PCIe SSD Drive, but i can see all the PCIe SSD drives in Disk management as individual drives.

If PCIe SSD can be configured in OS only as a Software RAID, can i get any document which states this. I am unable to find any document w.r.t to this drive.

Please share it with me at the earliest if anybody has.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 17:55:53 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,

We are aware of your situation regarding the Intel® SSD DC P3600 Series that you are not able to set up the RAID with the Dell* H730P controller. By checking on the Controller http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/PowerEdge-RAID-Controller-H730P-Spec-Sheet.pdf Datasheet from the manufacturer website, it looks like this controller does not support NVMe drives, it only supports SATA drives. You can check the information on the second page of the document on the section that says "Solution Provided". We would like to confirm the following information: *How are you connecting the drives that you are able to see them in disk management but on the RAID controller you are not able? *Could you please let us know what is the operating system you are using? NOTE: Any links provided for third party tools or sites are offered for your convenience and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Intel® of the content, products, or services offered there.We look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards,Junior M.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

PSash — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 03:32:39 GMT

Hi Junior M,

This is Dell PowerEdge R930 Server. So there are few parts which are required for the PCIe SSD to work.

*How are you connecting the drives that you are able to see them in disk management but on the RAID controller you are not able? For the PCIe SSD to install and get detected, we need 2 SSD controller, 8 SAS cables from backplane to SSD controller and PCIe SSD supported backplane.

I have attached the snapshot of the cabling.

*Could you please let us know what is the operating system you are using? Windows 2012 R2 is the OS. In Device manager i can see the NVMe Controller and 8 PCIe SSD drives in Drive section of device manager. Also i can see 8 individual PCIe SSD Drives in Disk Management.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 16:19:09 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,Thanks for the information provided. Could you please clarify what you mean with "SSD Controller"? Are you referring to a RAID controller? If so, please provide us the specific model. Could you please let us know if you are using generic SSDs or are you using Dell* OEM drives? We look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards,Junior M.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

PSash — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 16:38:14 GMT

Hi Junior,

If you see the diagram, 4 cables (Blue, Green, Red and Violet) from each side is going to a PCIe - Gen3 card. It is used so that the PCIe SSD can be connected to those controllers so that the whatever the requests come, the SSD controller will take care instead of the request going to the Processor. This is different from RAID controller.

The controller used is H730P in my case.

WE are using "SSD, 800GB, PCIe, 2.5 inch, NVMe, Intel, (P3600)"

Vendor Part No: SSDPE2ME800G4DE

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 21:56:43 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,

Thanks for the update. We were trying to find how to set up a Hardware RAID with your Dell* PowerEdge R930 Server but we were not able to find any information.

Intel® has two applications that are designed to create RAIDs, the https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/technologies/000005543.html Intel Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) and the https://downloadmirror.intel.com/25771/eng/RSTe_ReleaseNotes%20_4.5.0.2123-public.pdf Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise NVMe (Intel® RSTe NVMe*), however, it looks like this server does not meet the requirements. Both applications require a chipset C610 or above, but you have a chipset Intel(R) C602J that is not supported.

We recommend you to contact https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/memory-and-storage/data-center-ssds/000018274.html Dell* in order to get assistance how to set up a NVMe* Hardware or a Software RAID on your Server.

Regards,

Junior M.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

PSash — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 03:37:44 GMT

Hi Junior,

So you mean to say because of this Chipset we are unable to configure NVMe drives as Hardware RAID?

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:29:32 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,

We are sorry for the confusion, what we mean is that the solution Intel® offers for this matter is not compatible with your system because it does not meet the Chipset requirement. We suggested you contact https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/memory-and-storage/data-center-ssds/000018274.html Dell* because they may have other options to set up the Hardware RAID on your server.Best Regards,Junior M.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

PSash — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:40:26 GMT

HI Junior,

If possible please do share some documents which says NVMe PCIe SSDs can only be configured from within the OS and not from RAID hardware BIOS.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:52:05 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,

Thanks for the reply, the Intel® SSD DC P3600 Series can be configured via OS or Hardware RAID from BIOS.We can not provide you the steps how to do it because we were not able to find any document from the manufacturer website, in order for you to get the specific steps how to do it via BIOS or using an application that is supported by your server, we recommend you to contact Dell* so they can further assist you with this situation.Regards,Junior M.

Re: Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

idata — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 14:17:12 GMT

Hi PrashantDell,

We haven't heard back from you in a while. We would like to know if you have further questions or concerns we can assist you with. Best regards,Junior M.