Cabling the S140 Controller for Dell R640 10-bay Chassis

Hello,

The S140 is able to support 12 physical disks, per the document you listed. However, it isn't a validated configuration for the server. There is no official recommendation I could make to you.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if you're able to get it to work, since the S140 manual says that controller can handle it. I pulled this part number from the R540, GG3CG, which is listed as a standard SATA cable. I suspect it would be OK, but again, this is an unvalidated configuration, so while I individually believe it would work, this is not a Dell recommendation.

Hi Dylan. 

GG3CG does not work, it is too short for Dell R640 (10-bay) server. 

What's the "validated"  S140 cable part number please? 

Thanks Dylan.

Part #:9G3T5  Part Desc.:ASSY,CBL,NPIO,8HD BP,MB,R640

Thanks Young.

#9G3T5 is for Dell R640 8-bay Chassis. It is not long enough for Dell R640 10-bay chassis, and its SAS interface doesn't fit the SAS expander board listed in the document below.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-r640/per640_ism_pub/removing-the-sas-expander-card?guid=guid-9c77a843-efb1-47c3-be0f-c2d453f4f1f9&lang=en-us

Hello JasonWeng, my sincere apology, I was looking at other cases and it was another user looking for that part. Thank you for getting back to me quick. Let me please get you another reply now here:

As for R640, from what I looked up S140 has only 8bay backplane. (please see the pic attached)

I'm afraid S140 is "SATA only" configuration and 10bay Backplane is SAS/SATA configuration so you must need a PERC part. Hope this helps. Thank you for choosing Dell.

Thanks Young. 

According to R640 manual, 10-bay chassis supports NVMe drive which can not be managed by any PERC card, so I believe s140 is the only solution to manage NVMe drive and raid.  

"2.5 inch (x10) SAS, SATA, or NVMe backplane"

I guess the < > may haven't listed all cabling solutions, ortherwise how would we be able to create NVMe drive and raid. 

Kind regards,

Thanks Young, but that's too confusing. 

Can you show me the source of your info "factory support configuration" for S140 is backplane 8bay only" 

If S140 can only work on 8 drive, why the << Installation and Service Manual >> states that NVMe drive only work on Dell 10-bay drive?  I can find Dell publishes a few video showing how to to configure NVMe raid with S140. 

Kind regards, 

Hi what you said is correct and at this point what I can tell you our "factory support configuration" for S140 is backplane 8bay only, I’m afraid. Hope for your understanding

Hi Shine, 

Thanks for your confirmation that S140 is supported for 10 bay backplane, though none of the configurations in the Cabling Routing section has S140 cable shown. 

We do have NVMe drives on the server and can be displayed in the device list but we are not able to do any configuration using S140 since it has no S140 cable installed.   

I assume the S140 cable for 10-bay R640 is the missing piece of the puzzle. If you can help confirm the right S140 cable Dell part number that'd be great. 

Kind regards,

S140 is supported for 10 bay backplane also provided you have NVMe drives on the server. I believe @DELL-Young E is referring to S140 support on 8 bay chassis for SATA drives. Did you have SATA drives or NVMe drives on the server. You can refer below link for cabling requirement for various backplane configuration on R640

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-r640/per640_ism_pub/cable-routing?guid=guid-97280a84-9e95-4a04-901f-400c88c14645&lang=en-us 

You can refer "Figure 3. Cable routing - 10 x 2.5 drive backplane with NVMe" section on below link for details on cabling required for NVMe drives. "PCIe expansion card" is only required if you have 10NVMe drives on the system. How many NVMe drives you have?

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/poweredge-r640/per640_ism_pub/cable-routing?guid=guid-97280a84-9e95-4a04-901f-400c88c14645&lang=en-us

Below are the part# of NVMe cables required

Thanks Shine. Here is my question of this post: 

Can someone please let me know Dell part number for the S140 cable that will support Dell R640 (10-bay) chasis? 

We have no issue with NVMe cables or NVMe drives, we need S140 to manage NVMe drives and create raid. So far NVMe drives can show up in System Setting -> Device Settings, but from "Dell EMC S140 Configuration Utility" it can not detect any thing - very well expected because of there's no S140 cable installed yet.  

Kind regards

NVMe cables are sufficient for S140 to detect NVMe drives. Can you check whether RAID mode is configured on BIOS under NVMe Settings -> NVMe Mode

Can you share the picture of S140 Physical Disk properties page on BIOS -> Device Settings -> S140. There is no other cable required for S140 to detect NVMe drives.  Can you let me know how many NVMe drives you have on the server and which slot these are inserted. If possible please share the part# of NVMe drives you have