Lenovo Support in South Korea After End of Life

Bays Are Physical, Lanes Are Finite

NVMe drives attach directly to PCIe lanes rather than through a storage controller, and a processor provides a fixed number of them. A chassis can therefore present more drive bays than it has lanes to serve, and the bays look completely identical from the front whether or not anything is connected behind them.

Which Bays Are Live Is a Configuration Rule

The answer lives in the configuration rules for the machine type: how many bays are direct-attached, which require a PCIe switch in the path, and what has to be populated to enable the rest. None of it is visible or indicated on the hardware, so an estate can buy drives for bays that were never going to work.

The Second Processor Is a Storage Decision

A second processor brings its own PCIe lanes, so the same chassis can support materially more usable bays with both sockets populated than with one. That makes a processor purchase a storage capacity decision as much as a compute one — a connection that is rarely drawn, because the two sit in different budget lines.

Quote Against the Lanes, Not the Bays

ICD works from machine type and model, which determines the lane layout, and quotes drives for bays that are actually connected. We also supply the backplane, PCIe switch and riser hardware that changes which bays are usable. Shipped to South Korea in 4 to 7 days, tested and covered for one to three years.