Dell PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD Adapter User Manual

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD
Adapter

User’s Guide

Notes, cautions, and warnings

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.

WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

Copyright © 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other

trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.

2017 - 04

Rev. A03

Contents

1 Overview........................................................................................................................................................5

PCIe interface.....................................................................................................................................................................5

NVMe PCIe SSD adapter features.................................................................................................................................. 5

Device health................................................................................................................................................................5

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology............................................................................................... 5

Remaining rated write endurance.............................................................................................................................. 6

Device write status...................................................................................................................................................... 6

Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD .....................................................................................................6

2 Technical specications................................................................................................................................. 7

3 Getting started with NVMe PCIe SSD........................................................................................................... 9

Conguring NVMe PCIe SSD adapter in dierent operating systems........................................................................ 9

4 Replacing and conguring hardware for NVMe PCIe SSD adapter............................................................... 10

Removing NVMe PCIe SSD adapter from system.......................................................................................................10

Installing NVMe PCIe SSD adapter in system................................................................................................................11

5 Driver installation......................................................................................................................................... 12

Downloading NVMe PCIe SSD drivers...........................................................................................................................12

Installing or upgrading NVMe PCIe SSD driver for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012

R2, and 2016......................................................................................................................................................................12

Installing or upgrading NVMe PCIe SSD driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise

Server.................................................................................................................................................................................13

Installing or upgrading NVMe PCIe SSD driver for VMware.......................................................................................14

6 Conguring and managing your NVMe PCIe SSD adapter............................................................................16

OpenManage Server Administrator................................................................................................................................16

Storage information....................................................................................................................................................16

Congure and manage NVMe PCIe SSD adapter.................................................................................................. 16

Running physical device tasks...................................................................................................................................17

NVMe PCIe SSD adapter available tasks.................................................................................................................17

Performing cryptographic erase task for NVMe PCIe SSD.................................................................................. 18

Exporting the log........................................................................................................................................................ 18

Human Interface Infrastructure conguration utility.................................................................................................... 18

Entering the HII conguration utility.........................................................................................................................19

Viewing physical device properties...........................................................................................................................19

Erasing physical devices............................................................................................................................................ 19

Exporting the log........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Exiting the HII conguration utility...........................................................................................................................20

7 Troubleshooting............................................................................................................................................ 21

Contents

3

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology errors.........................................................................................21

Ungraceful system shutdown or power loss................................................................................................................. 21

General errors....................................................................................................................................................................21

NVMe PCIe SSD description is truncated...............................................................................................................21

Software RAID array created by using PCIe SSDs is not detected after SLES 11 is rebooted.........................22

NVMe PCIe SSD is not displayed in device management in operating system................................................. 22

Cannot update rmware by using Dell Update Package (DUP).......................................................................... 22

Linux fails to boot and prompts for the root password......................................................................................... 22

I/O device error on write to NVMe PCIe SSD....................................................................................................... 22

NVMe PCIe SSD performance measurement not optimal................................................................................... 23

In Windows Server, OpenManage Server Administrator does not detect PCIe NVMe devices......................23

Windows event ID 11 error reported in Windows event log.................................................................................. 24

System is unable to inventory or manage NVMe PCIe SSDs from HII utility..................................................... 24

8 Getting help.................................................................................................................................................25

Contacting Dell.................................................................................................................................................................25

Documentation matrix.....................................................................................................................................................25

Documentation feedback................................................................................................................................................26

Locating your system Service Tag.................................................................................................................................26

4 Contents

Overview

The PowerEdge Express Flash Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State
Device (SSD) Adapter is a high-performance storage device designed for solutions requiring low latency, high I/O operations per second
(IOPS), and enterprise class storage reliability and serviceability. The NVMe PCIe SSDs oer a Multi-Level Cell (MLC) or Triple-Level Cell
(TLC) NAND ash technology with a high-speed PCIe 3.0 compliant interface. The high-speed PCIe 3.0 compliant interface helps improve
performance for I/O bound solutions.

NVMe is the standardized, high-performance host controller interface that uses SSD on a PCI Express bus (PCIe SSDs).

NVMe PCIe SSD adapters are available on selected PowerEdge systems from SM1715, PM1725, and PM1725a in varying capacities.

Topics:

• PCIe interface

• NVMe PCIe SSD adapter features

• Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD

PCIe interface

1

The SSD controller used on the NVMe PCIe SSD has a PCIe Generation 3 (8 GT/s) interface. The interface is a PCIe x4 lane width for a 16­channel ash memory controller, and is used to transmit or receive storage interface commands between the host and the NVMe PCIe
SSD.

NVMe PCIe SSD adapter features

The following sections describe the dierent features of the NVMe PCIe SSD Adapter.

Device health

The NVMe PCIe SSD design is based on NAND ash technology. NAND SSDs have a nite number of program or erase cycles and a nite
number of spare blocks (replacements for other worn or faulty NAND blocks).

The program erase cycles and spare blocks are continuously monitored for each NVMe PCIe SSD through various software management
applications. For more information, see Conguring and managing your NVMe PCIe SSD adapter.

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology

The Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) feature set minimizes unscheduled system downtime by providing a
method of early detection of device degradation or fault conditions. By monitoring and storing critical performance and calibration
parameters, the SMART feature set attempts to predict degradation or fault conditions. Awareness of a negative reliability condition allows
the host system to warn you of an impending risk of device failure and advise on appropriate action.

Overview 5

Remaining rated write endurance

NAND SSDs have a nite number of program erase cycles. The NVMe PCIe SSD is warranted to a maximum amount of data written to the
device in total bytes written. The NVMe PCIe SSD self monitors for these limits, and software management applications notify you when
you reach these limits.

NOTE: If you continue to write to the device after it reaches the threshold of total bytes written, the amount of time the NVMe

PCIe SSD retains data while powered o decreases below device specications. For more information, see Technical

specications.

Device write status

NAND SSDs have a nite number of spare sectors. If the device exhausts the available spare sectors, the NVMe PCIe SSD enters Write
Protect (Read-Only) mode. In Write Protect mode, you can only perform read operations to the device. The NVMe PCIe SSD self-

monitors for these limits, and software management applications notify you when you reach these limits.

Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD

NOTE: For all operating system documents, see Dell.com/operatingsystemmanuals.

Only the following operating systems support the NVMe PCIe SSD devices:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x64/EM64T) or later

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (x64/EM64T)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 (x64/EM64T) or later

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 or later

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 or later

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 or later

• VMware ESXi 5.5

• VMware ESXi 6.0 or later

6

Overview

Technical specications

NOTE: The specications provided are for information purposes only and do not constitute an extension of Dell's warranty for

this product.

Table 1. Technical specications

Features Description

NAND type Multi-Level Cell (SM1715)

Triple-Level Cell (PM1725/PM1725a)

Hot swappable No

Embedded data protection enabled Yes

Device write cache Yes

Bootable device No

Self-monitoring enabled Yes

Oine data retention Up to three months after total bytes written reaches 100%

2

General

Model SM1715 adapter

PM1725 adapter

PM1725a adapter

Device protocol NVMe

NVMe standard 1.0 (SM1715)

1.1 (PM1725)

1.2 (PM1725a)

Bus protocol PCIe

Bus protocol version 3.0

Bus Link Width

Physical Dimensions

Height Max. 18.71 mm

Width Max. 69.85 mm

Length Max. 167.65 mm

x4 (SM1715)

x8 (PM1725/PM1725a)

Device Capacity

Technical specications 7

Un-formatted capacity

1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, and 6.4 TB

User-addressable sectors

Bytes per sector 512 Bytes

Rated Write Endurance (TBW) for SM1715 family 1.6 TB: 29.2 PB (10 DWPD)

Rated Write Endurance (TBW) for PM1725 and
PM1725a families

Environment

Operating temperature 0°C to 55°C

Shock 1500 G/0.5 ms

Vibration 10 HZ – 2000 Hz at 20 G

Power Requirements

Active power 25 W (FW Limit)

1.6 TB: 3,125,627,568 LBAs

3.2 TB: 6,251,233,968 LBAs

6.4 TB: 12,502,446,768 LBAs

3.2 TB: 58.4 PB (10 DWPD)

1.6 GB: 14.6 PB (5 DWPD)

3.2 TB: 29.2 PB (5 DWPD)

6.4 TB: 58.4 PB (5 DWPD)

Electrical characteristics

Voltage input 3.3 V and 12 V

8

Technical specications