I have a DELL FX2S chassis with 2 FC630 compute nodes and 2 storage nodes.
I was wondering if we can migrate to a faster storage, and so was planning to either purchase a PCIE card to place in the compute nodes to add some U.2 or similar NVME disks, or purchase a PCIE card to place in the chassis and a mezzanine card which I believe is needed to passthrough the card from the chassis to the compute node.
Since this will be a first attempt, I was wondering if someone else has tried a similar configuration, so we can avoid purchasing something that isn't compatible with what we are trying to achieve.
I am also planning to do a similar attempt in a FX2S chassis with FC430 compute nodes. This one has no storage node, just the local storage of the compute node.
Ideally I would want the FC430/FC630 to have the disks at the front so they can be swapped easily, rather than being attached to the PCIE card itself. It is not a requirement, but I would rather remove a disk without having to shut down the compute node, instead of having to shutdown, disassemble the PCIE card and unscrew the disk that I need to replace.
Finally, I would ideally like the PCIE NVME card to have hardware RAID, at least RAID 1 but ideally support at least 4 disks and hardware RAID 10.
Answers with compatible brands / models of working configurations would be great :)
Thank you in advance for any valuable insight.
Just some additional notes based on my research:
- I believe I need something like this card: https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/dell-poweredge-exp-fsh-pcie-ssd_User's%20Guide_en-us.pdf
- And also a backplane: https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_dell_adapters/dell-poweredge-exp-fsh-nvme-pcie-ssd_user's-guide3_en-us.pdf
However, I am not sure if these are compatible with FC430/630 and the FX2s chassis.
Also, I would rather have a proper RAID card instead of just that expansion card DELL provides.
UPDATE November 1
Considering the first answer I received, I am providing some more details of the goal. I would like to have a RAID card on the chassis, forward that card to a compute node, and have RAID 10 on that node. The card could be something like this: https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/raid-controllers/megaraid-9660-16i
I also enquired Dell to know if we could just swap the PERC that exists in the storage node for one compatible with NVME, but we can't.