PowerEdge R540 will not boot from NVME

Question

I have scoured the internet looking for solutions and it looks like I'm doing everything right, based on what I've found.

I am in UEFI Boot Mode
RAID is disabled/SATA settings are in AHCI mode.
I also tried enabling RAID mode, and drives still sis not show up in the controller setup.
I'm using a Dell-branded Samsung m.2 SSD in a Silverstone PCIe Adapter (have also tried a Sabrent adapter to the same effect.
I can see the SSD in iDRAC connected to the PCIe slot (but it does not appear under the "storage" tab).
I can install an OS to it.
When I go to the boot menu, the OSes I have installed show up, but are grayed out and cannot be selected.
I have confirmed that the bifurcation is set to x4 (it is a PCIe 3.0 x4 card)

ANY other ideas would be tremendously helpful!

Thank you in advance!

DELL-Joey C · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I read in some other forum, that the user reflashed the HBA and BIOS for the OS to be able to work. He mentioned flashing the HBA to IT mode. But this is out of Dell's capability to provide instruction to reflash to any other firmware.

If you have read somewhere that other manage to configure the server to work with the mentioned SSD, then it might be worth a try. Do share your experience.

DPN# 32YP0 CRD,CTL,PCIE,4TB,HHHL,P4500 and DPN# 3GFMW KIT,CRD,NVME,1.6,HHHL,PM1735 are listed as supported card. But I'm unsure if it would work with the OS that you are trying to install.

DELL-Erman O · Answer

Hello,

I'm not sure you can do it with PCIe card. As I can see you have already taken a few necessary steps. Please be ensure your BIOS, iDRAC and PERC firmware are up to date. Please be check secure boot is disabled. You can try setting the BIOS to boot from the NVME drive first, and then the hard drive as a secondary device. Save the changes and reboot the system. However as I know BOSS cards using with compatible m.2 SSD in RAID1. I believe you may need a BOSS card.

berkdavis · Answer

Hi @DELL-Erman O

Thank you for responding.

Everything is up to date, including the SSD firmware.

The BIOS can't be set to boot from it, as it is grayed out as an option. When it attempts to boot, it simply says "Boot from Linux Boot Manager failed".

Reportedly I need to be in UEFI mode, and not BIOS mode in order to boot this way. It sees that a bootable device is there, it just won't allow me to select it. The BOSS S1 uses SATA SSDs in M.2 form factor, and is not ideal. Many people are easily able to boot from NVMe using the exact configuration I'm using, and I'd love to know what I'm missing that's causing this to fail.

The "Embedded RAID Controller 1" in the screenshot below is a SATA drive connected to the ODD port. This is a janky workaround, but allows me to boot from something that isn't attached to the HBA that I need to pass through to a VM. You can see in the screenshot that I have Linux installations on the two NVMe drives, but they aren't selectable as boot options.

berkdavis · Answer

Anything? I'm still unable to get this to work, while others have no problem with it.

berkdavis · Answer

@DELL-Erman O Any other suggestions? It can definitely be done. I would just like to know how to do it.

DELL-Joey C · Answer

Hi,

Can you check in BIOS or iDRAC on boot sequence, if the Linux boot option is showing Unavailable or unchecked?

If it is showing Unavailable, it seems that the EFI boot is corrupted. I notice there is 2 Linux Boot Manager, did you install on 2 drives or you installed multiple times. Have you tried a clean install again on UEFI boot?

We do not have much information on your hardware installation, but I have a suspicion on the boot device from Silverstone PCIe Adapter. Here's an article on PowerEdge BOSS installation: https://dell.to/3CMU5u7

berkdavis · Answer

@DELL-Joey C​ I tried it on two different drives. It shows Unavailable in the BIOS. The OS/Hypervisor is Proxmox in this case, and I have also tested with Debian and Windows 11, to the same effect. People that have gotten it to work have done so with either Intel or Samsung nvme SSDs in the same Silverstone adapter. This jives with the service manual that does specify use of Intel or Samsung SSDs in the PCIe slots. So far I have tried a few Samsung drives to no avail. I have ordered some of the specific Intel m.2 drives that have been successful for others in an effort to match their configuration exactly. Can I use an NVMe BOSS in the R540? The BOSS-S1 is the only one showing compatible, and it uses m.2 SATA SSDs. It has abysmal write speeds. I also picked up some Intel DC P4500 PCIe SSDs. I haven't had a chance to test boot yet, but I strongly suspect they'll boot since iDRAC recognizes them as storage (the NVMe drives in the adapters are not recognized as storage in iDRAC, but they are recognized in the PCIe section as PCIe devices). The P4500s are extraordinarily power hungry SSDs, so they will be a last resort. Let me know if you need any other specific info on my hardware. Happy to PM you my Service Tag if it will help.

berkdavis · Answer

@DELL-Joey C​ Sorry for the late reply. and thank you very much for digging into this with me. I can't use the HBA to do it since the whole HBA has to be passed through to a VM immediately after boot. I have the HBA350 and it is natively in IT mode. I have the Intel P4500 that is the same as DP/N 32YP0 that you mentioned (just not Dell-branded) and it *does* work. I believe that the PCIe Samsung drives would have similar results. I don't love that option because I need redundancy and those SSDs pull up to 20W each, where an adapter card with two m.2 SSDs might pull 5-7W under load for both drives combined.  I just need to decide between speed and efficiency at this point. I find that I'm booting it less frequently than expected, so maybe I'll just stay with the BOSS-S1 to get it up and running. Thank you again for your help.

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PowerEdge R540 will not boot from NVME

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