Lanner NCA-5710 User Manual page 125

Appendix C: PCIe Hot-Swap
With the extensive use of PCIe technology, PCIe Hot-plug has now become a widely-required capability for
server systems across various industries. This functionality allows a PCIe end-point device to be removed
from or added to a running system without compromising the operational state of the other PCIe devices in
the system or even the motherboard itself. Despite the fact that Hot-plug is already a native PCIe feature in
its own design, it requires the full support from the operating system to "treat a PCIe end-point device as a
Hot-pluggable one." To achieve this functionality, Lanner has implemented a methodology that involves in
both hardware (Hot-plug controller IC) and software implementation (both BIOS and kernel) support, not
only successfully utilizing this functionality in NCA-5710's architecture but allowing for combined operation
of a hot-removal followed by a hot-insertion—Lanner in-band Hot-Swap capability. Benefiting
from this feature, User can switch NIC modules (e.g. , replacing a malfunctioned one or
changing the Ethernet interface from RJ45 to SFP) without powering off the system in one go,
safety-guaranteed and with ease.
Before you actually start performing a Hot-swap, make sure you have completed the following
configurations on your system.
By default, the Hot-plug capability is disabled for this system to reserve as many resources as possible for
critical applications, and hence it requires User's manual enabling.
1. Locate the PCIe slot the hot-plug capability of which is to be enabled. As separately controlled by
different CPUs (Sockets), the PCIe slots are recognized as Socket 0 Port 1A, Socket 0 Port 1C, Socket
1 Port 1A and Socket 1 Port 1C in BIOS interface.
CPU1 (Socket 0)
Socket 0 Socket 0
Port 1A Port 1C
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CPU2 (Socket 1)
Socket 1
Socket 1
Port 1C
Port 1A