S2D, Intel P3600 and no Dell OEM support on WS16

I’m gonna share a few things I’ve learned about the S2D configuration with the Intel P3600 in our Dell R730xd.

First off, be aware of KB4052341 about degraded performance and errors with the Intel P3600.

We’re using the Intel P3600 from Dell, which means the NVMe is branded with an OEM property and won’t allow you to install any firmware directly from Intel. You can install the Intel SSD Datacenter tool and run “isdct show -all” which will show you if the OEM property is there and/or filled in, which in our case it was:

OEM : Dell

So we got in contact with Dell and talked with lots of engineers to get the firmware and drivers for Windows 2016 (which weren’t on the website) and finally the statement from Dell was:

“We don’t support Windows 2016”

Which was crazy as we ordered this hardware with all the consent from Dell (taking months) that this config would be supported for S2d, which off-course is only on WS16. This is hired hardware, so I didn’t press the matter but if you have the same case I would suggest you demand replacements like the SM1725’s. In this case there was a 55 workingday delay so that’s why we chose the P3600.

Darryl told me there are ways to force the Intel firmware, but I think that would be a last resort and in our case not an option.