R740XD 24bay MPIO question

Basically 2 PERC HBA PCIE cards to the 24 bay 2.5 up front and a Mini Perc run the 4 bay mid tray/backplane or rear tray/backplane.  Either 4X10G SFP mezz card or if slot is available 2x40G QSFP PCIE card

Hi,

A couple of things I did to research for the question. First, I looked at the cable diagram that is on the documentation: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-r740xd/per740xd_ism_pub/cable-routing?guid=guid-06637506-d7db-43e6-9c15-be4a832d4fbe&lang=en-us. I don't think it's possible as the mid backplane is connected to the front backplane. I am unsure if the mid backplane can be rerouted to a PERC, there isn't any user mentioned this in any post. 

Next is looking into Figure 1. Cable routing – 24 x 2.5 inch drive backplane with dual adapter PERC11/HBA or Figure 2. Cable routing – 24 x 2.5 inch drive backplane with dual adapter PERC11/HBA; the backplane is connected to 2 PERCs which is considered to what you desired, but I checked under the PERC cards compatible with R740XD, none of the PERC has MPIO capability. Though, to my thoughts, the exact support for MPIO depends on the operating system and storage subsystem. I don't have any R740XD to test the capability with, perhaps, if you would like wait for any information, I may suggest to wait for any user with similar  configuration experience to help out. 

I was planning on using Windows Server 2022 or 2025 which has MPIO capability, and would use HBA cards for the 24 bay.  I looked over that link, and the mini Perc could connect to the rear 4x2.5 caddy/backplane, but would that leave enough PCIE slots (3 needed, 2 for PCIE HBA 3x8 and one for 2x40G QSFP 3x16)?  If that wouldn't leave enough PCIE slots available, I could replace the 2x40G PCIE with a 4x10G SFP mezzanine card.  Thank you for your help so far, I'm not in a rush as I'm still in the investigation stage at this point.  I'm looking at phasing out our older Supermicro servers with Dell ones to keep all of our server the same make and generation.  All of our other Dell servers are 14th Gen R640s and R440s.

Hi,

Unfortunately, I do not have any documented information that I can let you know if it works.

So far, none that have this configuration idea and been implemented. And mentioning of your idea, if you do manage to build this server, please do let us know how it goes.

Interesting that no one has tried it yet.  If I try it and get it to work, will update this post.  Thank you!

I'm now doing something different with our R740xd chassis.  We are going VMWare ESA VSAN which states that each NVME drive needs a direct connection rather than backplane.  Since we are looking to use 12 NVME drives I assume that I should use use Figure 14. Cable routing – 24 x 2.5 inch drive backplane with 12 SAS plus 12 PCIe and adapter PERC from the earlier cabling diagram.  I assume that will give the 12 direct lines to the 12 NVME drives.  2 questions, however.  Question 1 is what are the correct part numbers for the PCIE riser cards (are they the same or different) and what are the correct part numbers for the PCIE card to backplane cables?  Question 2 is if we want to add SAS drives along with it, must the adapter PERC card be a PCIE one or can it be a miniPERC?  If it must be a PCIE adapter, what is the correct part number for the cable?

One more question!  On that Figure 14. Cable routing – 24 x 2.5 inch drive backplane with 12 SAS plus 12 PCIe and adapter PERC which drive slots are NVME and which are SAS?

Hello SBaalman
The questions presented here isn't post purchase break/fix, it is field changing configuration- we do not have any supporting documents on this. DELL-Joey C mentioned expressed the same sentiment earlier. Only those who have actually tried this could share their experiences.

Respectfully,

You were too quick to dismiss and DID NOT UNDERSTAND my questions.  I am now NOT trying to do something not supported and was asking a question about part numbers for a supported configuration and if NVME and SAS drives were assigned to specific spots for a supported configuration.  I will start a new thread with just those questions about a SUPPORTED CONFIGUATION.