BOSS Controller Cards
Dell BOSS (Boot Optimized Storage Solution) Controller Cards
Dell BOSS (Boot Optimized Storage Solution) controller cards provide a dedicated M.2 SSD boot solution for Dell PowerEdge servers, keeping the OS boot drives separate from the data storage backplane. A BOSS card installs in a PCIe slot (or Dell's dedicated BOSS slot on newer models) and supports up to two M.2 SSDs, presenting them as a RAID-1 mirrored boot volume, so the OS gets redundant storage without consuming a hot-swap drive bay.
The BOSS-S1 and BOSS-S2 each support up to two 6Gbps M.2 SATA SSDs in RAID 1; the BOSS-S2 adds M.2 hot-plug and drive activity LEDs, while the BOSS-S1 card has no status LEDs. The BOSS-N1 uses up to two 80mm NVMe M.2 SSDs on a PCIe Gen3 x4 host interface. Dell documents BOSS-S1 support across 14th gen PowerEdge (R640, R740, R740xd, R440, R540, R940, T440, T640) and 15th gen (R650, R750, R6515, R7515, R6525, R7525), plus a separate modular card for blade and MX chassis; BOSS-S2 on R650, R750, R6525 and R7525; and BOSS-N1 on 16th gen R660 and R760.
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![Dell 2MFVD Dual M.2 6G PCI-E BOSS-S1 Controller [Low Profile]](data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR4nGP6zwAAAgcBApocMXEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)
Dell 2MFVD Dual M.2 6G PCI-E BOSS-S1 Controller [Low Profile]Availability: Only 1 leftManufacturer: Dell Condition: Refurbished 1 Year WarrantyBuy Now$17.98
![Dell 2MFVD Dual M.2 6G PCI-E BOSS-S1 Controller [Low Profile]](https://enterasource.com/media/catalog/product/cache/edfa14e1d5b26a0f8da1ee83d5b45a31/d/a/daily-receiving-3502_tn.jpg)
BOSS Card Models and Use Cases
| Model | Interface | M.2 Slots | RAID | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOSS-S1 | SATA M.2 | 1 | None (single drive) | Single-drive OS boot, 14th–16th gen |
| BOSS-S2 | SATA M.2 | 2 | RAID-1 mirror | Redundant OS boot; most common BOSS model |
| BOSS-N1 | NVMe M.2 | 2 | RAID-1 mirror | Faster boot storage; 15th–16th gen |
BOSS cards are the recommended boot storage solution for PowerEdge servers running VMware ESXi, Windows Server, or RHEL where preserving all front-panel drive bays for data storage is the priority. Unlike a USB boot device, BOSS provides enterprise-grade SSD reliability with RAID-1 redundancy — if one M.2 fails, the system continues running on the surviving drive.
- What is a BOSS card used for?
- A Dell BOSS controller card provides a dedicated boot device for the server operating system using M.2 SSDs, separate from the main hot-swap drive bays. This keeps all front-panel drive bays available for data storage. BOSS-S2 with two M.2 SSDs in RAID-1 is the standard OS boot solution for Dell PowerEdge servers running VMware ESXi or Windows Server.
