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PowerEdge Product Group

NVMe SSD is in use and warn the user if so. They cannot detect all cases where an NVMe SSD is in use and so the

user should verify the NVMe SSD is no longer in use prior to removing it. Some operating systems may prevent

orderly removal of NVMe SSDs that are still in use.

Figure 4 Prepare to Remove NVMe SSD

Users will need to check with the vendor of any operating system or third-party application that accesses NVMe SSDs

to determine if it supports surprise removal of NVMe SSDs. For operating systems or third-party applications that do

not support surprise removal of NVMe SSDs, users should perform an orderly removal as described above.

Dell EMC is also working with various industry standards bodies such as PCI-SIG (https://pcisig.com/) and the ACPI

Specification Working Group (https://www.uefi.org/workinggroups), silicon providers, operating system vendors, and

other OEMs to define new industry standard mechanisms to further improve support for NVMe hot-plug operations in

the future.

Conclusions

Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th-generation (14G) servers support a wide variety of hot-plug serviceability features for NVM

Express (NVMe) Solid-State Drive (SSDs) that address RASM and improve TCO. Surprise insertion is supported to

allow adding NVMe SSDs to the server without taking the server offline. For operating systems that support it, surprise

removal is supported to allow a user to quickly remove faulty, damaged, or worn out NVMe SSDs. Dell EMC

understand that hot-plug operations for NVMe SSDs while the server is running reduces costly downtime and are

driving the industry to improve user experience.