SuperMicro X11SSH-F-O w/ M.2 NVMe boot drive - it will FreeNAS

Yorick

Wizard
Joined
Nov 4, 2018
Messages
1,912
Heresy. Heresy I say!

SuperMicro X11SSH-F-O, BIOS 2.2
Patriot SCORCH 128GB M.2 NVMe x2 (P/N PS128GPM280SSDR) as boot device - at the time of writing, same price as a 128GB USB drive
FreeNAS 11.2-U1

Use case: Home media / backup server. No cache/slog needed. USB boot (SanDisk) was failing; a quick DuckDuckGo showed that USB drives do fail at higher rates than SSDs, with Kingston in the lead but still having issues; and a single Patriot M.2 is the same price as a replacement USB.

Potential drawback #1: One drive. One could mirror it to a USB drive (there's a connector on the motherboard even) of course. Also, one SSD is likely far more reliable than two USB.
Potential drawback #2: Not usable as cache/slog (x2 probably not as fast as desired); one fewer PCIe x4 slot than SSM. None of that matters for a home server though.
Potential drawback #3: SSH a little bit more expensive than SSM, around $10

For my use case as a home media server, it's just right. Keep all 8 SATA ports, have a "clean" build without NVMe adapter card, better reliability than USB.

Other use cases: Any FreeNAS build that would otherwise use an X11SSM, prefers to boot from SSD rather than USB, and doesn't need the second PCIe x4 slot. SSH still has two (2) PCIe x 8 and one (1) PCIe x 4.

Caveat #1: A SATA M.2 will not work in this board; make sure it's NVMe.
Caveat #2: The BIOS settings need to be changed so the drive will boot.
BIOS Setting: Advanced -> PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration -> NVMe Firmware Source: "AMI Native Support"
Boot -> Boot Mode: "Dual" or "UEFI"; "UEFI Hard Disk" Boot Option high enough in the list that it will be the first one executed

Other choices for a boot drive would be a Corsair MP300 120GB M.2 NVMe x 2 (P/N CSSD-F120GBMP300), or a Gigabyte GP-GSM2NE8128GNTD 128GB M.2 NVMe x2.

Silly Side Note: SATA is a protocol, not just a form factor. M.2 comes in either SATA or NVMe flavor. SATA does not always equal 2.5" form factor with SATA connector.
Silly Side Note Redux: Just in case that’s not blindingly obvious, NVMe drives exclusively boot via UEFI. Make sure you choose UEFI boot when installing FreeNAS.
 
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SecCon

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175
Ehm, what is the issue. I am not getting it to boot from NVMe at all so I throwed in a Sata SSD.

Have you?
 

Yorick

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Yes it's booting from the NVMe SSD. I just put this together yesterday and still had my monitor/keyboard attached, so just for you :), I rebooted it a few times and played with BIOS settings.

Result: Will boot when NVMe Firmware Source is set to "AMI Native Support", won't boot when it's set to "Vendor Defined Firmware", which is the default. I updated the OP to reflect the BIOS setting.
 

SecCon

Contributor
Joined
Dec 16, 2017
Messages
175
Yeah, I got that from SM support as well, but it would not...
Thing is, after checking up the drive it turned out to not be a NVMe M.2, but a "normal" SSD M.2. oversensitive stuff perhaps.

You sure its an NVMe chip on your M.2 SSD?

In my case I will add another normal Sata SSD to mirror boot device.
 

Yorick

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Nov 4, 2018
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That will do it. M.2 exists in two versions: SATA, and NVMe. That SuperMicro M.2 slot is NVMe only, NOT a SATA-compatible M.2.

I am 100% sure that my drive is NVMe. It's also the only affordable SSD drive I could find (in the $32 range as of this post) that uses NVMe. All other brands I saw at my reseller are either in the $100 range for 128GB, or they're SATA M.2.

I'd link you but am not sure how this forum feels about commercial links. Look for "Patriot SCORCH", P/N PS128GPM280SSDR
 
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SecCon

Contributor
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Dec 16, 2017
Messages
175
Na that's ok, I usually go for Samsung NVMe, but the one I used this time was from a replacement in a laptop so wasn't all that sure about it.
 

Yorick

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Most laptop SSDs are SATA. NVMe does not boost performance in (most) consumer / office workloads, and SATA is more affordable. I'm using a SATA M.2 in my desktop for that reason: No point in going NVMe. The software I use doesn't even tax the SATA speeds.

Edit Jan 2020: NVMe cost has come down to where SATA used to be. These days, NVMe even for light office / gaming use makes sense, just because of the economics
 
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gregerg

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
34
Sorry if this is hijacking, but I'm curious how you knew your nvme drive would work.

SuperMicro X11SSH-F-O, BIOS 2.2
Patriot SCORCH 128GB M.2 NVMe x2 (P/N PS128GPM280SSDR) as boot device - at the time of writing, same price as a 128GB USB drive
FreeNAS 11.2-U1
[...]
Other choices for a boot drive would be a Corsair MP300 120GB M.2 NVMe x 2 (P/N CSSD-F120GBMP300), or a Gigabyte GP-GSM2NE8128GNTD 128GB M.2 NVMe x2.

I also have an X11SSH-F, and I've just installed my OS on a samsung 960 evo successfully, then updated my BIOS to R 2.2a, as found in the current BIOS downloads on the supermicro site. But when following your boot guidelines, my drive is not found.

This FAQ @ supermicro says that only those m.2 drives listed here will work, but I noticed you have listed 3 nvme drives not on that list. Am I missing something? Will my samsung 960 evo not work?
 

Yorick

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Joined
Nov 4, 2018
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1,912
That's a surprise to me. I did not know the drive would work, I just reasoned that NVMe is a standard and, "certified drives" notwithstanding, anything that follows the standard would work.

The Patriot Scorch is the only one I tried. The other two are comparable drive and I assumed they'd work, but maybe that assumption was hasty.

You have to install FreeNAS as UEFI, not MBR, boot. I think it's an option towards the very end. You cannot boot MBR from an NVMe drive.
 

gregerg

Dabbler
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
34
Yeah, I think that was my issue. A brief google led me to how to make a uefi flash drive. Just successfully booted off my samsung evo 960. Thanks!

I followed these steps in Rufus to create the install usb key:
  1. Set “Partition scheme and target system type” to “GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer”.
  2. Set “File system” to “FAT32 (default)”
  3. Set “Cluster size” to “4096 bytes (default)”
  4. Select “Create a bootable disk using ISO”
  5. Select the [OS] ISO.
  6. Make sure that Rufus hasn’t changed the partitioning scheme after you have selected the ISO.
 

joncy92

Explorer
Joined
Dec 5, 2019
Messages
69
Heresy. Heresy I say!

SuperMicro X11SSH-F-O, BIOS 2.2
Patriot SCORCH 128GB M.2 NVMe x2 (P/N PS128GPM280SSDR) as boot device - at the time of writing, same price as a 128GB USB drive
FreeNAS 11.2-U1

Use case: Home media / backup server. No cache/slog needed. USB boot (SanDisk) was failing; a quick DuckDuckGo showed that USB drives do fail at higher rates than SSDs, with Kingston in the lead but still having issues; and a single Patriot M.2 is the same price as a replacement USB.

Potential drawback #1: One drive. One could mirror it to a USB drive (there's a connector on the motherboard even) of course. Also, one SSD is likely far more reliable than two USB.
Potential drawback #2: Not usable as cache/slog (x2 probably not as fast as desired); one fewer PCIe x4 slot than SSM. None of that matters for a home server though.
Potential drawback #3: SSH a little bit more expensive than SSM, around $10

For my use case as a home media server, it's just right. Keep all 8 SATA ports, have a "clean" build without NVMe adapter card, better reliability than USB.

Other use cases: Any FreeNAS build that would otherwise use an X11SSM, prefers to boot from SSD rather than USB, and doesn't need the second PCIe x4 slot. SSH still has two (2) PCIe x 8 and one (1) PCIe x 4.

Caveat #1: A SATA M.2 will not work in this board; make sure it's NVMe.
Caveat #2: The BIOS settings need to be changed so the drive will boot.
BIOS Setting: Advanced -> PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration -> NVMe Firmware Source: "AMI Native Support"
Boot -> Boot Mode: "Dual" or "UEFI"; "UEFI Hard Disk" Boot Option high enough in the list that it will be the first one executed

Other choices for a boot drive would be a Corsair MP300 120GB M.2 NVMe x 2 (P/N CSSD-F120GBMP300), or a Gigabyte GP-GSM2NE8128GNTD 128GB M.2 NVMe x2.

Silly Side Note: SATA is a protocol, not just a form factor. M.2 comes in either SATA or NVMe flavor. SATA does not always equal 2.5" form factor with SATA connector.
Silly Side Note Redux: Just in case that’s not blindingly obvious, NVMe drives exclusively boot via UEFI. Make sure you choose UEFI boot when installing FreeNAS.

Thanks a lot I couldn't figure out how to boot from the m.2 NVMe disk port on my X11-SCH-F but this worked a treat!
 
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