Cisco UCSC-P-M6DD100GF= Dual-Port NVMe Controller: Technical Specifications and Deployment Strategies

Hardware Architecture and Interface Design

The ​​Cisco UCSC-P-M6DD100GF=​​ is a PCIe Gen4 x16 dual-port NVMe controller engineered for Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers and HyperFlex HX nodes. Utilizing ​​Kioxia XL-FLASH 3D NAND​​ with SLC caching, it supports two 7.68TB NVMe 1.4c-compliant SSDs in a U.2 form factor, achieving ​​1.8M random read IOPS​​ (4K blocks) at 65μs latency. The controller’s ​​RAID-on-Chip (RoC) ASIC​​ offloads XOR calculations from host CPUs, reducing computational overhead by 37% in RAID 5/6 configurations.

Key innovations include:

• ​​T10 DIF/DIX End-to-End Protection​​: Validates data integrity from host to NAND using 8-byte CRC checksums
• ​​NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF)​​: Native support for TCP and RoCEv2 transports via Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnects
• ​​Power Loss Imminent (PLI) Protection​​: 48V capacitor array sustains 3.2GB/s write bursts for 50ms during outages

Compatibility Matrix and Firmware Requirements

The UCSC-P-M6DD100GF= is validated for:

• ​​Cisco UCS C480 M5 ML Server​​: Requires CIMC 4.5(2d) and BIOS C480M5.3.1.2e for PCIe lane partitioning
• ​​HyperFlex HXAF220c M6 Nodes​​: Mandatory HXDP 5.0(1a) for vSAN ESA mode deduplication
• ​​Virtualization Platforms​​: VMware vSphere 8.0 U2 (NVMe-oF VVOLs) and Microsoft S2D 2022 (Storage Spaces Direct)

Common compatibility issues involve:

• Attempting hot-add to UCS Manager 4.2 or earlier, causing ​​PCIe Surprise Removal​​ errors
• Mixing with non-Cisco NVMe drives in same namespace group, triggering ​​Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA)​​ conflicts
• Overprovisioning beyond 28% in Kubernetes environments, which degrades QoS guarantees for etcd backends

Performance Benchmarks and Real-World Use Cases

In Cisco-validated testing (UCS Performance Manager 5.4):

• ​​OLTP Workloads​​: 2.4M transactions/minute (HammerDB TPROC-C) with Oracle ASM striping
• ​​AI Training Checkpoints​​: 4.3GB/s sustained writes (TensorFlow 2.11, FP16 precision)
• ​​Video Surveillance​​: 256 concurrent 8K H.265 streams (300 Mbps/stream) with 0.01% frame loss

The controller’s ​​Dynamic Namespace Management​​ enables live capacity expansion—critical for Splunk indexer tiering without service interruption.

Thermal and Power Management

With 28W idle/42W peak power consumption:

1. ​​Server Airflow​​: UCS C480 M5 requires 30 CFM front-to-back airflow to maintain SSD temps below 70°C
2. ​​Workload Throttling​​: Cisco’s ​​Storage QoS Manager​​ caps random writes at 800K IOPS during thermal excursions
3. ​​Batch Job Scheduling​​: Aligns PLI capacitor recharge cycles (every 90s) with Hadoop job checkpoints

Field data shows improper drive bay sequencing increases NAND wear by 18% due to unbalanced channel utilization.

Procurement and Authenticity Verification

For guaranteed performance, itmall.sale supplies UCSC-P-M6DD100GF= controllers with:

• ​​Cisco Secure Unique Device Identity (SUDI)​​ for FIPS 140-3 compliance
• Pre-configured RAID 10 templates optimized for MariaDB Galera clusters
• TAA-compliant options for U.S. federal procurement (DFARS 252.204-7012)

Third-party sellers often provide refurbished units with degraded PLI hold-up times (12ms vs. Cisco-validated 50ms), risking data loss during brownouts.

Deployment Scenarios and Operational Constraints

While excelling in ​​real-time analytics​​ and ​​VDI​​, the UCSC-P-M6DD100GF= faces limitations:

• ​​Cold Storage​​: Higher $/GB vs. Cisco UCS-HD18T10K6GXN= 18TB SAS HDDs
• ​​Edge AI​​: Lack of -40°C operational rating prohibits outdoor 5G MEC deployments
• ​​Legacy Systems​​: Incompatible with Windows Server 2016 Storage Replica

Engineering Perspective

The UCSC-P-M6DD100GF= sets a benchmark for mid-tier NVMe storage, but its dependency on UCS Manager 5.0+ creates adoption barriers for legacy HCI clusters. While competing all-flash arrays offer higher density, Cisco’s tight integration with Intersight gives this controller unique appeal for enterprises standardizing on policy-driven storage—provided they’re willing to retrofit rack-level UPS systems to fully leverage PLI capabilities. In hyperscale environments, however, the lack of E1.S support may push adopters toward OpenFlex architectures.