Cisco UCSX-NVE16T4K1P | 6.4TB E3.S NVMe SSD, PCIe Gen5, High Endurance 3X DWPD

Q: What is the E3.S form factor and how does it compare to traditional drives?
A: E3.S (Enterprise and Data Center SSD Form Factor) is a modern NVMe form factor designed for high-density server deployments. The E3.S 1T variant is 7.5mm thick and enables up to twice the storage density compared to traditional 2.5-inch U.2 drives in 1U servers, while providing improved airflow, hot-swap capability, and support for higher power budgets. This allows for better cooling and performance in dense compute environments.

Q: Which Cisco UCS systems are compatible with this drive?
A: The UCSX-NVE16T4K1P is compatible with Cisco UCS X-Series M8 compute nodes including the X210c M8, X215c M8, X410c M8, XE130c M8, and XE150c M8. These nodes mount in Cisco UCS X9508 chassis or UCS XE enclosures. The drive requires front mezzanine pass-through controllers or RAID controllers depending on the specific configuration and compute node model.

Q: What does 3X DWPD endurance mean for this drive?
A: The 3X DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) rating indicates this is a high-endurance enterprise drive capable of having its entire 6.4TB capacity written three times per day for its rated lifespan. This makes it suitable for write-intensive applications such as databases, virtualization environments, high-performance computing, and AI/ML workloads where consistent, heavy write operations are common.

Q: Does this drive support hardware encryption?
A: Yes, the UCSX-NVE16T4K1P features SIE SCEF (Self-Encrypting Drive with Cisco Enhanced Functionality), providing hardware-based encryption for data at rest. This enables secure data storage without impacting performance, meeting compliance requirements for sensitive enterprise and government workloads.

Q: Can I use this drive in RAID configurations?
A: Yes, when used with compatible Cisco UCS compute nodes equipped with RAID controllers such as the UCSX-X10C-RAIDF-D, the drive supports enterprise RAID configurations. The maximum number of drives that can be configured with RAID depends on the specific compute node model and chassis configuration. Check your specific UCS node documentation for supported RAID levels and drive quantity limits.