I am trying to set up a new cache pool with two NVMe drives (Crucial P5 500GB).

 

I have this Mainboard https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/C246N-WU2-rev-10#kf and got this PCIe-Card https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_89045/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en . Long story short: It does not work, Unraid does not show me the new drives when I want to assign them to the new cache pool. I already changed the bios setting "CPU PCIE x16 Switch" ("Allows you to determine how the bandwidth of the PCIEX16 slot is divided. (Default: 1x16)") from [1x16] to [2x8] as well as [1x8 & 2x4], which does not make any difference.

 

What am I doing wrong here? Please tell me if you need any more information. And I hope, i put this into the right category. If not, don't hesitate to tell me. Thanks.

Board would need x4/x4/x4/x4 bifurcation support, which as far as I know is not available for LGA1151, there are server boars with two x8 slots that can bifurcate one of them to x4/x4, that would work.

Damn. But should'nt I be able to at least see/use one of the two drives right now? The notes of the PCIe-Card say "Without PCIe bifurcation only the first M.2 slot of the card can be used." I just want to rule out other possible errors before I send the new hardware back and start over from scratch...

2 hours ago, ArdNsc said:

But should'nt I be able to at least see/use one of the two drives right now?

Yes, first one should still work, diagnostics might show something.

Here.

Edited September 20, 20214 yr by ArdNsc
diagnostics removed

Nothing NVMe related being detected, if there's just a device in the first slot there could be other issues.

The board has just one PCIe-Slot. Can you tell if the adapter card is getting recognized?

4 minutes ago, ArdNsc said:

The board has just one PCIe-Slot.

I meant having only a device in the adapter first slot.

 

4 minutes ago, ArdNsc said:

Can you tell if the adapter card is getting recognized?

Unfortunately that's not possible, it's transparent to the OS, you see the NVMe device(s) if it works, but noting if it doesn't or there aren't any NVMe devices installed.

 

Okay. Thanks so far. I will check a few things and get back in touch later.

So: For testing I am running the PCIe port in [1x16] default mode with one NVMe-Drive installed on the Expansion Card. The NVMe-Drive is detected in Bios:

Seg:Bus:Dev:Func 00:01:00:00

Model Number CT500P5SSD8

Total Size 500.1 GB

Vendor ID 1344

Device ID 5405

Namespace: 1 Size: 500.1 GB

But I can't see it in unRAID. When I try to add Disks to my Cache Pool or create a new one, the drive is not there.

What am I missing here?

Please post diags.

-

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by ArdNsc
diagnostics removed

Nothing NVMe related is being detected by Linux, this is a hardware issue, but no idea how it's being detected in the BIOS.

Damn. I am hesitating to buy another PCIe->NVMe Bifurcation card that fits my needs when I can't even get a single NVMe drive running. Are there any (stupid) mistakes that come to your mind what I could be missing here? Any wrong Bios-settings?

Could be a specific board issue, look for a BIOS update and/or try toggling any relevant BIOS options.

Could you try two test

 

1. If only insert 1 NVMe ( you have two ), try swap M2 slot.

2. If have another brand M2, pls try mix different model.