PCIe Slot Reference

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This section describesPCIe slot information.

For slot designation information, see PCIe Slot Designations.

For details about supported PCIe cards, card quantity, and slot restrictions, refer to the Product Notes.

PCIe Slot Length and Capabilities

The server contains 11 low-profile PCIe 2.0 card slots, which have the following length and capabilities:

Slots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 have x8 connectors (x8 electrical interface)
Slots 8 and 11 have x16 connectors (x8 or x16 electrical interface)

PCIe Card Slot Population Order

The total number of PCIe cards and the slot population order depends on the server CPU configuration.

A two-CPU configuration only supports PCIe slots 1,2,3,4,5, and 6.
A four-CPU configuration supports all 11 PCIe slots.

In both configurations, PCIe slot 2 is reserved for the storage drive HBA, which leaves five available slots for a two-CPU configuration and 10 available slots for a four-CPU configuration.

Note - If the system was ordered from the factory with optional NVMe drives, a PCIe NVMe Switch card is installed in PCIe slot 1.

As a general rule, when installing a PCIe card in the server, use the following population order:

For a two-CPU configuration, the slot population order is: slot 6, 4, 5, 3, 1.

For example: When installing a PCIe card in a two-CPU configured server, first, determine if slot 6 is available. If it is available, install the card in the slot. If it is not available, determine if slot 4 is available. If slot 4 is not available, determine if slot 5 is available. Continue this process with slots 3, and 1 until you find an available slot.
For a four-CPU configuration, the slot population order is: slot 11, 8, 6, 4, 10, 7, 5, 3, 9, 1

For example, when installing a PCIe card in a four-CPU configured server, first determine if slot 11 is available. If it is available, install the card in the slot. If it is not available, determine if slot 8 is available. If slot 8 is not available, determine if slot 6 is available. Continue this process with slots 4, 10, 7, 5, 3, 9, and 1 until you find an available slot.

PCIe Cards With Boot Devices

If the server has several PCIe cards that provide boot devices, disable the Option ROM on the PCIe slots not used for booting. By default, the BIOS enables Option ROMs for PCIe slot 2 and the four on-board 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports.