MS-A2 SSD Configuration

The optimal SSD slot recommendations for my Minisforum MS-A2 vSphere cluster setup:

Minisforum MS-A2 Storage Configuration

The MS-A2 has 3 M.2 NVMe slots with the following specifications:

• Slot 1: PCIe 4.0 x4 (primary slot)
• Slots 2 & 3: PCIe 3.0 x4 by default, configurable to PCIe 4.0 x4 via BIOS
• All slots support M.2 2280 form factor
• Also has a PCIe x16 slot (electrically x8) with bifurcation support

Recommended SSD Slot Allocation

Given your vSphere cluster requirements, here’s the optimal configuration:

Slot 1 (PCIe 4.0 x4 - Primary)

Samsung 980 Pro 500GB

• Purpose: ESXi installation, ESX-OSData, and VMFS volume
• Reasoning: This slot has guaranteed PCIe 4.0 speeds and the 500GB capacity is perfect for the ESXi hypervisor, management partitions, and a moderate-sized VMFS datastore for VMs

Slot 2 (PCIe 3.0/4.0 x4 - Configurable)

Samsung 990 PRO 4TB

• Purpose: vSAN ESA storage tier
• Reasoning: vSAN ESA requires NVMe devices with Class F or higher performance and minimum 1.6TB capacity. The 990 PRO 4TB provides excellent performance for vSAN ESA workloads. Configure this slot to PCIe 4.0 x4 in BIOS for optimal performance.

Slot 3 (PCIe 3.0/4.0 x4 - Configurable)

WD_BLACK SN850X 4TB

• Purpose: NVMe Tiering/Cache or additional vSAN capacity
• Reasoning: The SN850X Gen4 provides high performance for tiering workloads. You can configure this slot to PCIe 4.0 x4 in BIOS to maximize throughput.

Important Configuration Notes

1. BIOS Configuration: The two secondary slots are set to PCIe 3.0 x4 by default and can be manually changed to PCIe 4.0 x4 in the BIOS. Make sure to enable PCIe 4.0 on slots 2 and 3.

2. vSAN ESA Requirements: For vSAN ESA, you need NVMe devices of class D (3 DWPD) or higher for endurance and Class F or higher for performance, with a minimum 1.6TB capacity. Both your 4TB drives exceed these requirements.

3. Network Requirements: vSAN ESA requires 25Gbps networking as a hard requirement. The MS-A2’s dual 10GbE SFP+ ports can be bonded to approach this requirement, though 25GbE would be ideal.

4. Cooling Considerations: The MS-A2 has dedicated cooling with a 5V fan directly cooling the SSD slots, which is important for sustained NVMe performance.

Alternative Considerations

If you want to use the PCIe x16 slot for additional storage expansion, you could consider an M.2 to PCIe adapter card to add more NVMe drives in the future, as the PCIe slot supports bifurcation, allowing the x8 lanes to be split into two PCIe 4.0 x4 connections.

This configuration will give you a robust vSphere cluster foundation with proper separation of hypervisor, management, and storage workloads while meeting vSAN ESA performance requirements.