Dell PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD SFF P4500 Technical Specifications and Information

Dell PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD SFF P4500/P4600

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.

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2017 - 11

Rev. A00

Contents

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

NVMe PCIe SSD architecture.......................................................................................................................................... 5

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

NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF features....................................................................................................................5

Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD...................................................................................................... 7

2 Technical specications.................................................................................................................................8

3 Getting started with NVMe PCIe SSD..........................................................................................................10

Conguring NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF in dierent operating systems.............................................................. 10

Servicing your NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF device..................................................................................................10

4 Replacing and conguring hardware.............................................................................................................12

Removing NVMe PCIe SSD from system......................................................................................................................12

Installing NVMe PCIe SSD in system............................................................................................................................. 13

5 Booting from NVMe PCIe SSD.....................................................................................................................14

Installing Windows Server 2016 on NVMe PCIe SSD.................................................................................................. 14

Installing RHEL 7.0 or later on the NVMe PCIe SSD....................................................................................................14

Installing SLES 12 or later on the NVMe PCIe SSD......................................................................................................14

6 Conguring and managing your NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF device.........................................................15

OpenManage Server Administrator................................................................................................................................15

Storage information....................................................................................................................................................15

Congure and manage NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF......................................................................................... 16

Running physical device tasks...................................................................................................................................16

NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF available tasks........................................................................................................ 17

Blink and unblink task for PCIe SSD.........................................................................................................................17

Preparing to remove an NVMe PCIe SSD............................................................................................................... 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

Setting LED blinking.................................................................................................................................................. 20

Exporting the log........................................................................................................................................................20

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

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

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

NVMe PCIe SSD Carrier LED indicators........................................................................................................................21

Contents

Ungraceful system shutdown or power loss................................................................................................................ 22

General errors...................................................................................................................................................................22

NVMe PCIe SSD is not listed in the operating system..........................................................................................22

Linux fails to boot and prompts for the root password......................................................................................... 23

I/O device error on write to NVMe PCIe SSD....................................................................................................... 23

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

In Windows Server, OpenManage Server Administrator does not detect PCIe NVMe devices......................24

System becomes unresponsive when NVMe PCIe SSD is surprise removed....................................................24

System becomes unresponsive or crashes when NVMe PCIe SSD is inserted.................................................24

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

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

Locating your system Service Tag.................................................................................................................................25

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

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

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

4 Contents

Overview

The PowerEdge Express Flash Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Solid State Device (SSD) 2.5 inch small form factor (SFF) 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 are oered as a 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 solid-state devices on a PCI Express bus (PCIe SSDs).

Topics:

• NVMe PCIe SSD architecture

• Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD

NVMe PCIe SSD architecture

The NVMe PCIe SSD solution provides the PCIe connectivity for up to 24 NVMe PCIe SSDs in selected systems.

The NVMe PCIe 2.5 inch SFF SSDs are available on selected PowerEdge systems starting from P4500 and P4600.

In PowerEdge systems, multiple solutions are used to connect to a PCIe SSD backplane, allowing connectivity for up to 24 NVMe PCIe SSDs.

NOTE

: To determine the maximum number of NVMe PCIe SSDs supported on your system, and for more information on extender

adapters, see the system-specic Owner’s Manual at Dell.com/support/manuals.

PCIe interface

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 2.5 inch SFF features

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

Hot swap

: To check if your operating system supports NVMe PCIe SSD hot swap, see Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe

NOTE

SSD.

The NVMe PCIe SSD supports orderly hot swap allowing you to add or remove a device without halting or restarting the system in which the device is installed.

The supported NVMe PCIe SSD hot swappable functions are dened below:

Overview 5

Orderly or Hot Insertion

Orderly Removal You remove a device from a running system. Prior to physically removing the device, you must notify the system

Orderly Swap You remove a device from the system in an orderly fashion and replace it with a supported device. The device that

WARNING: Do not remove an NVMe PCIe SSD without notifying the system rst. For more information, see Preparing to remove

an NVMe PCIe SSD.

NOTE: Orderly hot swap is only supported when NVMe PCIe SSDs are installed in a supported Dell system running a supported

operating system. Do not insert or remove an NVMe PCIe SSD while accessing the system BIOS or Hll conguration. To ensure that you have the correct hardware setup for your NVMe PCIe SSD, see the system specic Owner's Manual at Dell.com/ support/manuals.

You insert a device into a running system where a similar device has not been previously inserted from the time it was last booted. The systems that support NVMe PCIe SSDs are congured to handle the PCIe resource balancing in the event of a hot insertion, when operating within a Dell supported operating system. This preset system conguration makes the hot insertion an orderly operation, if performed with supported operating systems.

that the device is about to be removed. This notication denes hot removal as an orderly operation.

is removed and the device that replaced it use the same device driver.

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 NVMe PCIe SSD 2.5 inch SFF in dierent operating systems.

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.

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.

Overview

Supported operating systems for NVMe PCIe SSD

NOTE: NVMe PCIe SSD hot swap is not supported in VMware ESXi 5.5 or while accessing the BIOS or Hll

conguration.

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

NOTE: NVMe PCIe SSD is not supported as a boot device in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, or VMware.

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

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 or later

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 or later

• VMware ESXi 6.0 or later

• Ubuntu 16.04 or later

Overview 7

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 Triple-Level Cell (P4500/P4600)

Hot swappable Yes

Embedded data protection enabled Yes

Device write cache Yes

Bootable device Yes (UEFI boot starting on select 13th Generation PowerEdge systems)

Self-monitoring enabled Yes

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

General

Model P4500/P4600

Device protocol NVMe

NVMe standard 1.2

Bus protocol PCIe

Bus protocol version 3.0

Backplane interface Combo-connector (SFF-8639)

NOTE: For more information on the combo-connector, see http://

www.ssdformfactor.org.

Physical Dimensions

Height 69.85 mm

Width 15.0 mm

Length 100.45 mm

Device Capacity

Unformatted capacity

P4500: 1TB, 2TB and 4TB

P4600: 1.6TB and 3.2TB

User-addressable sectors

8 Technical specications

1TB: 1,953,525,168 LBAs

1.6 TB: 3,125,627,568 LBAs

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