Asus Hyper m.2 PCIe Adapter

[John Doe]

Hi Folks

just wanted to ask you guys if someone has that Asus Hyper M.2 Adapter in use in combination with ESXi (or similar hypervisor) and Truenas

I would like to build a new system and wonder if this HBA can be passed thru to truenas.

Single SSD passthru possible
all SSD passthru possible
even possible to passthru the controller?

 

[Ericloewe]

There is no controller per se. PCIe slot to M.2 adapters are (in 99% of cases) transparent or close to it. The fancier ones have PCIe switches for added compatibility (and cost), but in all cases, individual SSDs are independent PCIe devices.

 

[John Doe]

cool, then i can expect it shall just work fine

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Make sure your mainboard supports PCIe bifurcation for the x16 slot you intend to use.

 

[Arwen]

I second @Patrick M. Hausen's comment. A single M.2 NVMe, (NOT SATA), will work fine, (in the proper slot). But, unless your motherboard will bifurcate those 16 PCIe lanes into 4 x 4, additional M.2 NVMe won't work.

If you need multiple M.2 NVMe on a single PCIe card, without that motherboard bifurcation support, then the PCIe card must have a PCIe switch which does the bifurcation for you.

This assumes the card is this one:
Amazon - ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 4.0 X4 Expansion Card

 

[John Doe]

I second @Patrick M. Hausen's comment. A single M.2 NVMe, (NOT SATA), will work fine, (in the proper slot). But, unless your motherboard will bifurcate those 16 PCIe lanes into 4 x 4, additional M.2 NVMe won't work.

If you need multiple M.2 NVMe on a single PCIe card, without that motherboard bifurcation support, then the PCIe card must have a PCIe switch which does the bifurcation for you.

This assumes the card is this one:
Amazon - ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 4.0 X4 Expansion Card

yep its that one.

i am aware of bifurcation, however thanks for pointing it out, good to keep that in mind.


idea is to get a hypervisor like esxi or proxmox
1x truenas vm with the m.2 adapter passed thru, populated with 2x2x 1tb (mirror), storage passed back to hypervisor for:

1x vm debian for daily desktop usage
1x vm windows 10 gaming machine, pixel accelerator passed thru

-> debian for daily use, windows for gaming, truenas for easy backups and easy rollbacks, since i am good in breaking things