On a passive SFF-8639 backplane, with one port per drive, is it possible to connect some of the back side SFF-8643 ports to a SAS HBA and the others to an NVMe card like the Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2E4?
The specific scenario I'm looking at is the upcoming IcyDock MB699VP-B, which is toted as a '4 Bay 2.5" NVMe U.2 SSD' hotswap rack. However, since 12Gbit SAS also uses 8639 and 8643 for drive and board connections, I'm wondering if I can mix drive types in this enclosure, or any non-expander backplane that uses these connections.
Best Answer
The MB699VP-B ports are U.2 ports, so SATA SSDs will not fit in them.
I should note that Chopper3's answer above is incorrect. The MB699VP-B cannot connect to a SAS HBA. Each rear port is PCIe 4x and must be connected to a PCIe or M.2 slot via an adapter such as this: https://www.amazon.com/SFF-8639-Adapter-Mainboard-Intel-SFF-8643/dp/B01D8F9JAK
And yes you still get all of the benefits of NVMe since the drives are still connected to a 4x PCIe bus.