supermicro - help with board selection - replacement of x11ssm-f

[phier]

hello,
i am currently running supermicro x11ssm-f https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X11SSM-F ; using xeon e3-1230v6.

The board has only 4 pcie slots; which are fully occupied ;(

Is it possible to replace board; keep CPU with other that has more PCie say 5-6? and also can handle more then 64G ram ECC ; or ram is limited by CPU?

I need more pcie bc i need to plug GPU;

Also as far i understood there is no NVME to SATA adapter currently?

Amazon.com

all says that i cant be connected via SATA port ;( and supermicro doesnt come with SFF-8639

So maybe i can boot system from SATA DOM instead of NVME inside PCIe reduction and save one PCIe, or if there is something that can convert NVME to SATA?

OR maybe NVME to USB adapter and boot from usb? https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Adapter-...86685&sprefix=nvme+to+sa,aps,744&sr=8-31&th=1

Thanks!

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

You need another platform with more PCIe lanes

 

[Etorix]

An ATX motherboard with the same socket may provide more PCIe slots (from PCH).
Memory is tied to the CPU.

How is the system configured? And what exactly do you want to achieve?

 

[phier]

@DigitalMinimalist what do you mean by other platform?

@Etorix oh got your point so i should go for ATX not micro ATX as for now.
So basically i need to go for other xoen that supports more than 64g ram, right?

Well at the moment its:
https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X11SSM-F
2x pcie usb3 controllers
1x hba
1x pcie via cable https://www.amazon.de/Cooler-Master-MasterAccessory-Riser-Kabel-PCIe/dp/B08F2DLQDJ to GPU card nvidia
1x pcie adaptor for NVME drive (to store ESXi images)

and need to find out how to boot ESXi via usb->to nvme adapter ;

thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

Is it possible to replace board; keep CPU with other that has more PCie say 5-6? and also can handle more then 64G ram ECC ; or ram is limited by CPU?

The X11SS* boards are hard limited to 64 GB of memory. You also won't easily find boards with more PCIe slots than the X11SSM-F, since it exposes basically everything the CPU and PCH combined can offer.

You need to step up to Xeon E5/Xeon Scalable/Threadripper Pro/Epyc.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

You need to step up to Xeon E5/Xeon Scalable/Threadripper Pro/Epyc.

Exactly… Ryzen is an option too if 128GB ECC RAM are sufficient.

Threadripper x399 is another „cheap“ option with loads of PCIe lanes, Quadchannel… but not very power efficient

 

[Etorix]

Well at the moment its:
https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X11SSM-F

2 * PCIe x8, 2 * PCIe x4, no M.2

2x pcie usb3 controllers

What are these for???

1x hba
1x pcie via cable https://www.amazon.de/Cooler-Master-MasterAccessory-Riser-Kabel-PCIe/dp/B08F2DLQDJ to GPU card nvidia
1x pcie adaptor for NVME drive (to store ESXi images)

New information here: You're on ESXi, not bare metal.
Short of a complete description of your system and of its purpose it's impossible to give suitable advice.
Why ESXi?
Are you out of SATA ports with 8 on-board (including 2 SATADOM) and whatever the unspecified HBA supplies?
What the H* are there extra USB controllers in a server, wasting two PCIe slots???

and need to find out how to boot ESXi via usb->to nvme adapter ;

Get a corresponding adapter… Such as the one you linked to in the first post.
But as far as I know you can boot ESXi from a regular USB thumbdrive, and that's exactly what the single USB plug on the motherboard is meant for. It doesn't put teh same strain on boot drives as TrueNAS.
SATADOM is also an option for boot drives, and there are two dedicated ports for that.

 

[phier]

What the H* are there extra USB controllers in a server, wasting two PCIe slots???

well i run following setup;

baremetal -> ESXi; and all following guests
1) truenas ; 8x sata passthrought (will be replaced by HBA pcie card)
2) homeassistant -> 1x usb 3.0 pcie card for zigbee/zwave adapters
3) ubunt wit 1x usb 3.0 pcie and gpu ; for frigate and plex
4) multiple other VMs;

Get a corresponding adapter… Such as the one you linked to in the first post.

i assume you meant this adapter > https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Adapter-ANYOYO-Converter-Portable-Support/dp/B0BBRDWKLV
so i can boot esxi via usb port from nvme drive.

ah so there is no point to boot ESXi from nvme drive? Just wondering if such stick https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B015CH1JIW is okay then?

satadom - yeah but hard to buy etc...

thanks