HPE DL20 Gen 10 NVME 22110 (110mm) Support and Requirements

[LeeBridgewater]

Hello

Could someone advise on a few questions I have related to installing a single NVME drive into the HPE DL20 Gen 10?

1. is HPE P/N P06687-B21 (Dedicated iLO port/M.2 NVMe SSD/COM port upgrade kit) required to install an NVME PCIe 3.0 drive?

I have read conflicting information, with the manual stating you can install an NVME PCIe drive with or without P06687-B21 directly into the NVME slot on the motherboard negating the upgrade Kit. 

2. Can I install a 22110 length NVME drive (110mm) and is there a 110mm mounting point on the chasis?

3. Can you use a 3rd Party NVME without causing the 85%+ Fan issue I have read in this community?

4. I would like to install a 1.9TB NVME PCIe 3.0 drive, are there any restrictions?

I would like to utilise the NVME drive within the OS (Server 2019 Standard) for a couple of VM disks to improve performance.

The current setup is 2x HPE SATA Disks (Non SSD) running in Raid-1.

The server is currently in production, so cannot open it up to physically check to answer questions 2 and 3, so any help/advise appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Lee

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. HPE ProLiant XL675d Gen10 Plus Server Maintenance and Service Guide | Gen10 Plus 8 SFF NVMe U.3 Premium backplane cabling

2. HPE ProLiant XL675d Gen10 Plus Server Maintenance and Service Guide | Gen10 Plus 8 SFF NVMe U.3 Premium backplane cabling

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[TVVJ · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Answers to :

1. On page 119 of the HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen10 Maintenance and Service Guide, item number 3 on the System board components diagram is available to install a M.2 SSD drive, not specifying if it is SATA or NVMe SSD. Because of this, it appears that the only NMVe SSD drive can be installed on the server is by using the option part "Dedicated iLO Port / M.2 NVMe SSD / COM Port Upgrade Kit" (P06687-B21), and the HPE M.2 NVMe SSD option has a capacity of 480GB.

2. On page 25 of the HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen10 Server's QuickSpecs, under section "Read Intensive – NVMe - M.2.- Solid State Drives (22110 type)" the listed NVMe SSD drive is "HPE 480GB NVMe Gen3 Mainstream Performance Read Intensive M.2 Multi Vendor SSD". Its option part number is "P40513-B21.

3. HPE options are tested with the servers and are guaranteed to work. However, a third part drive is not tested and hence may not communicate to iLO the way HPE options are designed to do. Hence, iLO ensures that there are no thermal shutdown or issues by increasing the fan speed.

4. According to this server's  QuickSpecs, the only listed NVMe drive option's capacity is 480GB. Not sure what will happen if any other is installed.

Regards,

[LeeBridgewater]

Hello TVVJ

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply, it is appreciated. 

I assume that non HPE NVME Options may not communicate the thermal data to iLO hence the increased fan speed noted when using third party NVME drives. 

Out of interest, can you install an NVME drive into this slot to be used by the host O/S, and not just as a boot drive?

I currently have 2x HPE Sata spinning disks in a Raid-1 running Server 2019 with Hyper-V, and would like to install a HPE NVME into the slot and move the Virtual Disks to the NVME to improve performance. 

Is that possible?

Thank you

Lee

[TVVJ]

Hello,

Not sure if it would only be used as a boot drive or can be used by the host OS as well. You could reach out to HPE Support team for further assistance.

Regards,

[LeeBridgewater]

Thank you for your reply. 

Out of interest, do you know if the two hard disk bays at the front of the DL20 Gen 10 are SAS compatible?

The other option I have is to replace the two mechanical HPE drives in Raid-1 with 2x HPE SAS SSDs.

Thanks

Lee

[TVVJ]

Hello,

The server's embedded storage controller "HPE Smart Array S100i SR Gen10 SW RAID" controls the hard drives through the embedded SATA ports on the system board. If you need to control SAS drives, then, to me, it appears that any HPE Smart Array SmartRAID controller needs to be installed in the server, perhaps using PCI risers and then be appropriately cabled to achieve such a configuration.

Regards,