nvme sata information

#freenas talk on boot ssds

[Oct 10 10:37:27]  <dvl>	Looking at the recommended boot drives, I found the M.2 SATA SSD: WD Blue 500GB, which are M+B key from what I can tell.  I'm failing to find a PCIE card I can mount that on.  Anyone suggestions? re https://www.servethehome.com/buyers-guides/top-hardware-components-freenas-nas-servers/top-picks-freenas-boot-drives/
[Oct 10 11:17:34]  <[redacted]>	dvl: people tend to use 2x USB sticks in mirror for FreeNAS
[Oct 10 11:18:20]  <dvl>	[redacted]: Understood.  The recommendations seem to exist regardless.
[Oct 10 11:18:29]  <[redacted]>	https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Bundle-SanDisk-Low-Profile-SDCZ430-016G-G46/dp/B07R7ZDS7Z/
[Oct 10 11:18:33]  <[redacted]>	these should do the trick
[Oct 10 11:18:41]  <[redacted]>	Sandisk Ultra Fits are pretty decent
[Oct 10 11:18:47]  <[redacted]>	they have decent random-write performance
[Oct 10 11:18:56]  <[redacted]>	so installs/upgrades don't take forever
[Oct 10 11:19:34]  <[redacted]>	dvl: you can't use SATA M.2 SSDs inside a PCIe card
[Oct 10 11:19:43]  <[redacted]>	dvl: they relie on a SATA connection to work
[Oct 10 11:19:45]  <[redacted]>	rely
[Oct 10 11:19:52]  <[redacted]>	that's the whole point
[Oct 10 11:20:17]  <dvl>	[redacted]: Well.
[Oct 10 11:20:18]  <[redacted]>	they would need a SATA port on the card, to be connected to one of the board's SATA connections
[Oct 10 11:20:24]  <[redacted]>	to feed the SATA M.2 SSD
[Oct 10 11:20:59]  <[redacted]>	there are 3 types of M.2 SSDs
[Oct 10 11:21:04]  <[redacted]>	1. SATA
[Oct 10 11:21:08]  <[redacted]>	2. PCIe AHCI
[Oct 10 11:21:12]  <[redacted]>	3. PCIe NVMe
[Oct 10 11:21:18]  <dvl>	That kind of defeats my goal of not using SATA ports, just PCIe slots.
[Oct 10 11:21:30]  <[redacted]>	then don't use a SATA M.2 SSD
[Oct 10 11:21:31]  <[redacted]>	:)
[Oct 10 11:21:40]  <[redacted]>	use a PCIe AHCI one
[Oct 10 11:21:53]  <[redacted]>	if the system is too old to boot from PCIe NVMe
[Oct 10 11:22:07]  <dvl>	The system in question is an R720
[Oct 10 11:22:16]  <[redacted]>	probably too old to handle NVMe boot
[Oct 10 11:22:26]  <[redacted]>	so your best bet would be PCIe AHCI
[Oct 10 11:23:29]  <[redacted]>	or 2x USB sticks
[Oct 10 11:23:41]  <[redacted]>	like those Sandisk Ultra Fit ones
[Oct 10 11:26:11]  <[redacted]>	dvl: SATA M.2 SSDs are the same as 2.5" SSDs, they are physically M.2 but electrically SATA
[Oct 10 11:26:36]  <[redacted]>	they need a SATA controller at the other end
[Oct 10 11:28:08]  <dvl>	[redacted]: it sounds like I will return to my regularly scheduled cunning plan: two SATA II SSDs mounted on PICe slots adaptors, attached to the two SATA ports on the MB, and powerd by the CD ROM cable.
[Oct 10 11:29:33]  <[redacted]>	:)
[Oct 10 11:32:01]  <[also redacted]>	I boot my FreeNAS off two mirrored USB sticks.   It's not fast but it works.   System dataset is on the spinning pool so I'm not terribly worried about wrecking the USB sticks.
[Oct 10 11:32:14]  <[redacted]>	indeed
[Oct 10 11:32:26]  <[redacted]>	if the sticks are good
[Oct 10 11:32:30]  <[redacted]>	it's pretty fast
[Oct 10 11:54:45]  <dvl>	[redacted]: Do you mind if I copy/paste what you've said into my notes? They might wind up in a blog post. 
[Oct 10 11:54:59]  <dvl>	If you prefer, I can change your nick to [redacted]
[Oct 10 11:55:19]  <[redacted]>	sure the rest is fine
[Oct 10 11:55:32]  <[redacted]>	but yeah you can change the nick to [redacted] :)

adaptors I found

should all be B+M but confirm

https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-Support/dp/B07GDFX3YJ
https://www.amazon.com/EZDIY-FAB-Dual-Adapter-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B07JG61LCQ/
https://www.amazon.com/EZDIY-FAB-Adapter-Heatsink-Cooling-System/dp/B07T3JRJSN

the goal

Use FreeNAS recommanded drives:

M.2 SATA SSD: WD Blue

Issue: they need a SATA controller, as mentioned on #FreeNAS

Could use PCIe AHCI

twitter

https://twitter.com/DLangille/status/1182288030620688384

jbeez using
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GDFX3YJ/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075P1QR1L/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IR05DLK/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M7Q21N7/