Summary
PCIe OCuLink Port Connections and NVMe Drives population rules when combined with SAS/SATA drives on both 1U and 2U chassis and different backplanes.
Description
Will using Optical Copper (Cu) Links (OCuLink) in the 0 and 1 ports prevent detecting SAS/SATA drives in ports 2 and 3 of the SAS/NVMe Combo backplane F1U8X25S3PHS?
Resolution
There are basically two different scenarios that change the rules:
- Using the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe*) Source #1 – Onboard PCIe OCuLinks:
Non-Volatile Memory Express* (NVMe*) drive management routes connector pairs 0,1 and 2,3 and cannot mix NVMe with Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives within a pair.
If NVMe drives are populated and OCuLinks enables in 0 and 1 connector pair only, ports 2,3,4,5,6,and 7 will remain SAS/SATA. - Using the PCIe Source #2 – PCIe Switch Add-in Card:
NVMe drive management routes Drive Connector Set 4,5,6,and 7 and mixing NVMe and SAS/SATA drives within the driver set is not supported.
These rules will apply only for Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC). Therefore, without VROC, NVMes can be connected to the server board as stand-alone drives in any enabled OCuLink without disabling any other SAS/SATA ports.
For more information, refer to the following reference examples:
- See the complete Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) section of the System Integration and Service Guide for Intel® Server System R1000WF Product Family.
- Refer to the R1208WFxxx SAS / SATA / NVMe Data Cable Guide section of the Configuration Guide for the Intel® Server Board S2600WF Product Family.