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Can I perform PCI-e NVMe RAID boot on C622 chipset or RSP3WD080E raid adaptor?

111alan
Novice
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Recently I need to set up a nvme raid system which I can boot OS from. I have 2 options:

1. upgrade to C622 platform

2. get an intel RSP3WD080E adaptor

I only need to perform raid 0 or 5, but the big thing is to boot from the raid configuration. I tried other adaptors but most of them only have HBA function for NVMe drives.

I heard that X299 boards has this function, wondering if C622 LGA3647 boards have it as well?

And can I boot from RSP3WD080E adaptor if I create a raid 0 or raid 5 array with it?

Thanks.

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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

The new generation of Intel RAID controllers are Tri-Mode featured, pretty much it means that it supports Sata, Sas and NVMe drives.

 

 

The RSP3WD080E controller supports 0, 1, 5 and 10 RAID modes and to answer your question booting from a NVMe RAID volumes is supported and is one of the new features of this new generation. For more info you can check the following document: https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/server-products/raid-products/TriMode_Adapter_Hardware_User_Guide.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/server-products/raid-products/TriMode_Adapter_Hardware_User_Guide.pdf

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Jose A.
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111alan
Novice
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Thanks, you mean both options are available if I need to boot os from the raid array?

Also, can I use RSP3WD080E on other platforms, such as those with Dell, Supermicro or ASUS X99/C612 motherboard, or even non-intel platforms, without any problem?

Thank you.

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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

That is correct, both RAID levels are available as bootable with this RAID controller.

 

 

About if the RSP3WD080E card is compatible with other OEM equipment that is a question more to the manufacturers than Intel. This card is PCIe standard compatible so in a good theory it should be recognized and possible to install drivers. For testing and stability you should ask these OEMs that you mentioned.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Jose A.
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111alan
Novice
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So I can take it that it doesn't have a white list, non-standard definitions or any abnormal designs to prevents it from being used on other platforms or other nvme or sata drives(including optane)?

And same goes to other intel tri-mode PCI-e raid adapters?

Thank you for the reply

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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

Certainly there is no "particular" design to make it compatible with Intel servers boards only. Intel recommends them to be implemented on intel server board and chassis but that doesn't exclude 3rd parties OEM.

 

 

The tri-mode cards are the latest generation of RAID cards and probably will require a latest generation board to take full advantage of their features pretty much for the NVMe architecture.

 

 

Other manufactures should have a compatibility list of 3rd party products that you probably could check before getting any of this cards.

 

 

Last this is the RAID cards product brief that you could check for general info https://www.intelserveredge.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/Product-Matrix_2017_Q4_Server_RAID-final.pdf

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Jose A.
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111alan
Novice
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Thanks. The card's bootability of nvme raid array is not limited on latest platform right? I'll get a tri-mode card and have a try

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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

I think it is since the previous generation RAID controllers didn't have such feature. In a combination of latest RAID controllers and Intel server platforms it is guarantied to work since there are architecture changes that allow it, but on 3rd party platforms its really difficult to tell before doing the actual test.

 

 

Jose A.
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111alan
Novice
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I mean the latest intel tri-mode raid card with older generation of intel platform(like C612+Broadwell-EP). The raid-array's controller and raid BIOS should be located on the card, so, can it boot?

It's far more complicated to re-create all the software environment than just migrating the entire drive to a raid array. I've done that before.

thanks.

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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

I understand your question and why you would like to combine latest tri-mode RAID cards with the previous generation chipset boards. What happens is that combination is not supported or at least has not been validated by Intel. If you look the compatible products on this URL: https://ark.intel.com/products/99499/Intel-RAID-Adapter-RSP3WD080E https://ark.intel.com/products/99499/Intel-RAID-Adapter-RSP3WD080E you will see that only the latest boards are supported so any other setup could not be recommended or you could try it at your own risk with no guaranty that it will work or it will be stable.

 

 

Besides that the previous generation boards were not able to boot from NVMe RAID volumes and that was an architecture limit related not only a capable RAID card related.

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Jose A.
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idata
Employee
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Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

Do you have any updates, questions or comments in regards to this issue?

 

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us back.

 

 

If you consider the issue to be completed please let us know so we can proceed to mark this thread as resolved.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Jose A.
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111alan
Novice
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Guess I have to have my friend to check it out himself... Thanks for the reply all along

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idata
Employee
1,032 Views

Hello Kagamine_Rin,

 

 

You are very welcome. If you have further just let us know or open a new topic.

 

 

Regards.

 

 

Jose A.
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