Front-Loading Nvme Ssd Population Guidelines; Front-Loading Nvme Ssd Requirements And Restrictions - Cisco UCS C240 M5 Installation And Service Manual

Replacing Front-Loading NVMe SSDs
To replace HHHL form-factor NVMe SSDs in the PCIe slots, see
State Drives, on page

Front-Loading NVMe SSD Population Guidelines

The front drive bay support for 2.5- or 3.5-inch NVMe SSDs differs by server PID:
• UCSC-C240-M5SX—Small form-factor (SFF) drives, with 24-drive backplane. Drive bays 1 and 2
support 2.5-inch NVMe SSDs.
•
• UCSC-C240-M5S—SFF drives, with 8-drive backplane and DVD drive option. Drive bays 1 and 2
support 2.5-inch NVMe SSDs.
• UCSC-C240-M5L—Large form-factor (LFF) drives, with 12-drive backplane. Drive bays 1 and 2 support
2.5-inch and 3.5-inch NVMe SSDs. If you use 2.5-inch NVMe SSDs, a size-converter drive tray
(UCS-LFF-SFF-SLED2) is required for this version of the server.

Front-Loading NVME SSD Requirements and Restrictions

Observe these requirements:
• The server must have two CPUs. PCIe riser 2C is not available in a single-CPU system. PCIe riser 2C
has connectors for the cable that connects to the front-panel drive backplane.
• PCIe cable and PCIe riser 2C. This is the cable that carries the PCIe signal from the front-panel drive
backplane to PCIe riser 2C. These two items are kitted as follows:
• Hot-plug support must be enabled in the system BIOS. If you ordered the system with NVMe drives,
hot-plug support is enabled at the factory.
Observe these restrictions:
• NVMe 2.5- and 3.5-inch SSDs support booting only in UEFI mode. Legacy boot is not supported. For
instructions on setting up UEFI boot, see
on page 48
• You cannot control NVMe PCIe SSDs with a SAS RAID controller because NVMe SSDs interface with
the server via the PCIe bus.
• You can combine NVMe 2.5- or 3.5-inch SSDs and HHHL form-factor SSDs in the same system, but
the same partner brand must be used. For example, two Intel NVMe SFF 2.5-inch SSDs and two HGST
HHHL form-factor SSDs is an invalid configuration. A valid configuration is two HGST NVMe SFF
2.5-inch SSDs and two HGST HHHL form-factor SSDs.
• UEFI boot is supported in all supported operating systems. Hot-insertion and hot-removal are supported
in all supported operating systems except VMWare ESXi.
Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server Installation and Service Guide
54
66.
◦ For small form factor (SFF) versions of the server: CBL-NVME-C240SFF
◦ For large form factor (LFF) versions of the server: CBL-NVME-C240LFF
or Setting Up UEFI Mode Booting in the Cisco IMC GUI, on page
Replacing HHHL Form-Factor NVMe Solid
Setting Up UEFI Mode Booting in the BIOS Setup Utility,
Maintaining the Server
48.