All NVMe NAS based on Dell R760
Hi all,
I am planning to build a dedicated TrueNAS SCALE NAS/storage server using a Dell PowerEdge R760 with the 24-bay passive NVMe backplane. Before purchasing, I would like to hear from anyone who has experience running third-party U.3 NVMe drives in this configuration.
Planned hardware configuration
Server: Dell PowerEdge R760 (16th gen)
Chassis: 2.5" with up to 24 NVMe Passive Drives, 2 CPU
CPU: 2× Intel Xeon Silver 4510 (12C/24T, 150W)
RAM: 256 GB DDR5-6400 ECC RDIMM (8× 32GB)
Storage controller: Dell HBA355e (IT/pass-through mode), no PERC
Data drives: 10× Micron 7450 PRO 15.36TB U.3 NVMe (PCIe 4.0, 7mm, SFF-8639)
Drive carriers: Dell DXD9H / 0DXD9H (third-party compatible)
OS boot: Dell BOSS-N1 with 2× M.2 480GB (RAID 1)
Network: Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 10/25GbE SFP28 (OCP 3.0)
ZFS pool: RAID-Z2 (10 drives) for bulk/archive storage
OS: TrueNAS SCALE (bare metal)
Specific questions
My primary concern is whether the Micron 7450 PRO U.3 drives will be properly detected by the R760's passive backplane when using the HBA355e in pass-through/IT mode, without any Dell firmware whitelist issues.
I am aware that Dell's PERC controllers can enforce drive certification checks, but my understanding is that with a passive backplane and an HBA in IT-mode, drives are presented directly to the OS via PCIe, bypassing any Dell firmware validation. Is that correct in practice?
Specifically I would like to know:
Has anyone successfully run Micron 7450 PRO (or similar third-party enterprise U.3 NVMe) drives in an R760 24-bay passive backplane with TrueNAS SCALE?
Are all 10 drives visible in TrueNAS without any special configuration?
Any issues with drive detection after reboots or with S.M.A.R.T. monitoring?
Any firmware compatibility issues we should be aware of, especially given Dell's known advisory about Micron 7450/7500 firmware panic states?
Context
This server will act as a dedicated TrueNAS SCALE storage backend for an existing 3-node Proxmox cluster (HPE DL360 G9, 10GbE), serving iSCSI and NFS over 25GbE. The reason for choosing third-party drives is purely economic. Dell's own branded NVMe drives at 15TB+ capacity are priced at 2–4× market rate for equivalent enterprise drives.
Any real-world experience — positive or negative — is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
/Jørgen