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Expansion cards and expansion card risers
An expansion card in the system is an add-on card that can be inserted into an expansion slot on the system board or riser card
to add enhanced functionality to the system through the expansion bus.
The VxRail D Series appliance supports PCI express (PCIe) generation 3 expansion cards that can be installed on the system
board using expansion card risers. This system supports low profile (LP) and full height (FH) X1 expansion card risers.
NOTE:
To avoid data loss, ensure that you refer to the procedures in SolVe Online for VxRail or the SolVe Desktop
application before performing any memory or expansion card replacement or upgrade procedures.
NOTE:
A System Event Log (SEL) event is logged if an expansion card riser is not supported or missing. It does not prevent
your system from turning on and no BIOS POST message or F1/F2 pause is displayed.
The following tables provide detailed information about the expansion card riser specifications:
Table 37. Expansion card riser configurations - 1 CPU systems
CPU1 (PCIe Ports)
CPU1 (PCIe Ports)
Right Riser
LOM Mezz Riser
Location
Width
Length
Height
TXCV2
-
PCIe Slot-2
SW
HL
FH
X16
-
PCIe Slot-1
SW
NA
NONE
-
X8
a.
The LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) mezzanine (Mezz) riser contains the OCP network card.
Table 38. Expansion card riser configurations - 2 CPU systems
CPU1 (PCIe
Ports)
CPU1 (PCIe
Ports)
CPU2 (PCIe
Ports)
Right Riser
LOM Mezz Riser
Left Riser
Location
Width
Length
Height
TXCV2
-
T8P71
PCIe Slot-3
SW
HL
LP
-
-
X16
PCIe Slot-2
SW
HL
LP
X16
-
-
PCIe Slot-1
SW
NA
NONE
-
X8
-
a.
The LOM mezzanine riser contains the OCP network card.
Expansion card installation guidelines
The following table describes the supported expansion cards:
Table 39. Expansion card riser configurations
Expansion card riser
PCIe slots on
the riser
Processor
connection
Height
Length
Slot width
Full height right riser 1 (1 CPU systems)
Slot 2
Processor 1
Full Height
Half Length
x16
Low profile right riser 1 (2 CPU systems)
Slot 2
Processor 1
Low Profile
Half Length
x16
Low profile left riser 2 (2 CPU systems)
Slot 3
Processor 2
Low Profile
Half Length
x16
NOTE:
The expansion-card slots are not hot-swappable.
The following table provides guidelines for installing expansion cards to ensure proper cooling and mechanical fit: The expansion
cards with the highest priority should be installed first using the slot priority indicated. All the other expansion cards should be
installed in the card priority and slot priority order.
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Replacing and adding hardware