RSTe Not Recognizing NVME SSDs

[Matthew]

Good day all! This is my first post here so I'll tag the intro on top. I'm Matthew Bourguignon. I own a small computer biz in Auburn, Alabama called BourgTech. I started doing business in 2011 in Daytona Beach, Florida. I've been tinkering with computers since I was 10 and I built my first computer when I was 16, while laid up due to ACL surgery. I've been Googling my backside off trying to find an answer to this particular problem so I'm hoping y'all can help me.

I use the Gigabyte C246/C246m boards as the platform for my SMB server build. I've recently started tweaking the design with my test bench unit, using 2x 256GB Kingston NVME SSDs for OS install and tiered storage cache in MS Storage Spaces. I'd been hoping to use the Intel RSTe RAID function to provision 30% of the two SSDs together to create a 76.8GB RAID1 array for OS installation, with the remaining capacity passed-through to the operating system, allowing Windows to see that space as available for use in a Storage Pool. However, I never made it that far, because...

Intel RSTe does not show the SSDs in the "Create RAID" menu.

The two PCIe channels DO appear in the Intel RSTe setup menu in the UEFI, and when I assign those channels to Intel RSTe, the Kingston NVMEs disappear from the UEFI's NVME options menu, indicating the Intel RSTe controller has grabbed the NVME drives, but after that they totally ghost. They don't show in the RAID Disks, Non-RAID Disks, or Create RAID menus in UEFI. If I try reverting to the old RSTe oROM, they don't show up there either. The NVMEs just straight-up G H O S T. 😲👻🤦🏼‍♂️

(Hope you don't mind some Emoji; I try to have fun with the challenges I face.)

Now here's the twist! If I switch the RSTe Mode to Disable, which changes the operating mode from RSTe to RST (switching from enterprise to consumer), suddenly the NVME drives appear in the UEFI menu. I can RAID the NVME SSDs in this config. I thought about leaving the system configured this way but alas, if I provision only 30% of the two SSDs into a single RAID1, the remaining capacity simply disappears. I need that extra capacity to pass through to Windows, which I thought was a function of RSTe. 

My goal here is to establish the OS install on a small NVME RAID1 array, providing operational redundancy to avoid downtime, while passing the remaining percentage along to Storage Spaces to act as cache for the server's 4TB of slower, whirly disk capacity. I've tried doing this at a software level by mirroring the OS install across two NVME disks, but then the remaining capacity of each NVME disk disappears from the Storage Pool. It looks like MS configured Windows not to allow use of Dynamic Disk capacity in a Storage Spaces pool. That means my only shot at demoing this config is by deploying RAID1 at a hardware level for 30% of the NVME SSD cap, and then allowing the remaining 70% cap to pass through to Windows.

If anyone can help me determine why the NVME SSDs don't even appear in Intel RSTe, I would appreciate it!

MB

[JosafathB_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello Matthew,

Thank you for contacting Intel® Memory & Storage Support.

Our recommendation on this case is to contact your OEM (Original equipment manufacturer) Gigabyte* to get further assistance regarding BIOS and compatible hardware for your PC.

Based on the user manual for your motherboard (https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/server_manual_c246-wu4_e_1003.pdf) Chapter 3 there are different ways to set up your BIOS and to create the RAID configuration in your board, but we can not assure you that your current configuration is going to work, and we advise you to contact your OEM.

Based on your chipset specifications (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/147326/intel-c246-chipset.html) your motherboard includes the following solutions:

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (SATA and SAS)

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology for PCI Storage

We advise you to choose the one designed by the OEM to be used with the NVMe devices and to check which drives are compatible with your PC.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best regards.

Josh B.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel®