Installing the six-bay SFF NVMe rear drive cage

IMPORTANT:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends installing at least one drive in the rear drive cage. Populate drive bays based on the drive numbering sequence. Start from the drive bay with the lowest device number (Drive numbering).

This drive cage option supports NVMe drives. These drives are assigned the drive numbers 1–6 (Drive numbering).

Depending on the system configuration, the NVMe rear drive cage may connect only to PCIe slot 2, PCIe slots 2 and 6, or only to slot 6. The number of processors required depends on which slots will be used.

  • If the NVMe rear drive cage will connect only to slot 2, then only one processor is required.

  • If the NVMe rear drive cage will connect to PCIe slots 2 and 6, or only to slot 6, then two processors are required.

Prerequisites

Before you perform this procedure, make sure that you have the following items available:

  • The components included with the hardware kit

  • Torx T-15 screwdriver

Procedure
  1. Power down the system (Power down the system).
  2. Remove all power:
    1. Disconnect each power cord from the power source.
    2. Disconnect each power cord from the system.
  3. Remove the system from the rack (Remove the system from the rack).
  4. Place the system on a flat, level work surface.
  5. Remove the access panel (Remove the access panel).
  6. Remove the air baffle (Remove the air baffle).
  7. Remove the rear option blank (Remove the rear drive cage blank).
  8. Align the pins on the drive cage with the notches on the rear panel and install the drive cage.

  9. If the preinstalled cables must be moved from one side of the drive cage to the other side, do the following:
    1. Loosen the screws from the plastic cover.
    2. Remove the plastic cover from the rear of the drive cage.

    3. Move the cables to the side closest to the slot where they will be connected.
    4. Replace the plastic cover.
  10. Connect the cables to one of the following:
  11. Install one or more NVMe pass-through boards in the appropriate slots (Installing an expansion board or type -p controller).
  12. Install the air baffle (Install the air baffle ).
  13. Install the access panel (Install the access panel).
  14. Install the system into the rack (Installing the system into the rack).
  15. Power up the system (Power up the system).