Is M.2 supported for boot drive?

[Jon Smark]

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the Supermicro X11SSM-F and X11SSH-F is that the latter offers an M.2 connector. This can be useful, for instance, to connect a boot drive without taking up any of the SATA ports. But is this scenario supported at all by FreeNAS?

 

[droeders]

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the Supermicro X11SSM-F and X11SSH-F is that the latter offers an M.2 connector. This can be useful, for instance, to connect a boot drive without taking up any of the SATA ports. But is this scenario supported at all by FreeNAS?

Yes - you can boot from M.2 drives in FreeNAS, although I've never done it.

Note that a simple search of the forum would have found this post, with someone using the same board and M.2 for a boot drive:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/m-2-ssds-and-x11ssh-f-motherboard.41592/

I would suggest you read the thread, because there are some gotchas.

 

[Ericloewe]

M.2 is a physical form factor. There's nothing to support. It's a bunch of conductors and insulators constructed in a certain way.

More interesting questions are:

• What interfaces does M.2 use? SATA or PCI-e, depending on the motherboard and drive. Do not assume, always triple check.
• Does FreeNAS boot from SATA/AHCI devices? Of course, like any operating system more modern than Windows XP.
• Does FreeNAS boot from NVMe devices? Yes, FreeNAS 9.10 supports NVMe.

 

[Stux]

M.2 is a physical form factor. There's nothing to support. It's a bunch of conductors and insulators constructed in a certain way.

More interesting questions are:

• What interfaces does M.2 use? SATA or PCI-e, depending on the motherboard and drive. Do not assume, always triple check.
• Does FreeNAS boot from SATA/AHCI devices? Of course, like any operating system more modern than Windows XP.
• Does FreeNAS boot from NVMe devices? Yes, FreeNAS 9.10 supports NVMe.

And booting from NVMe requires BIOS support. Also, you can still boot from an m.2 drive in an Add-in Card (AIC) carrier board in a PCIe slot.

 

[Ericloewe]

And booting from NVMe requires BIOS support.

Good point. Early motherboards with PCI-e M.2 slots may not include the required BIOS boot logic. Same goes for older motherboards that predate M.2 and NVMe.