Intel P3600 NVMe PCIe SSD Hardware RAID Support

[PSash]

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.

[idata]

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... 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.

[PSash]

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.

[idata]

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.

[PSash]

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