HPE DL360/DL380 Gen10 PCIe bifurcation

[TQ12]

Hello there

does anyone here use bifurcation on the DL360/DL380 Gen10 servers?
Which pcie nvme bifurcation cards do you use?
I plan to use one of these cards:
https://www.delock.com/produkte/suchen.html?suchen=bifurcation&search=

Do you have to make other settings in the bios than those mentioned here at:
https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss/proliant-gen10-uefi/GUID-40941745-0DEF-45E6-A16D-CEB8C4C523B1.html

What is the technical difference between bifurcate and dual-bifurcate?
bifurcate - x8 -> x4 x4 (x16 > x8 x8) ???
dual-bifurcate: x16 -> x4 x4 x4 x4 ???

Thanks for help.

[TVVJ]

Hello,

PCIe bifurcation indicates the process of splitting the PCIe slot into two equal lanes or communication paths and quadrification means splitting it into four equal lanes. If the PCIe card supports bifurcation or quadrification, then its speed is split into two or four equal parts. Meaning, a PCIe card of x8 speed would act as two x4 cards and and x16  would act as two x8 cards if it is bifurcated. If a x16 card is quadrificated, then it would act as four x4 cards.

Regards,

[TQ12 · Accepted solution]

Just for the reference.
After some testing with 2-port cards we ended up with a 4-Port M.2 NVMe Adapter M-Key, PCIe X16 from 10Gtek.
We added 4 Samsung 990 Pro NVMe to the card.
All 4 NVMe are listed in the BIOS (System Information > Device Inventory & Storage) and are also presented to the OS and are configurable as volumes / disks.
BIOS Settings we are using:

1. System Configuration > RBSU > PCIe Device Configuration > Advanced PCIe Configuration > PCIe Bifuraction Options > PCIe Slot #X : Dual Bifurcate
2. System Configuration > RBSU > Service Options > Intel VMD Support : Disabled
   (to open service options: while in RBSU press strg+a)

Cheers

[Sunitha_Mod]

Hello @TQ12,

We are glad to know you were able to find the solution and we appreciate you for keeping us posted.