is HPE Tri-Mode Supported for ESA?
No.
Now, the real details are a bit more complicated than that. It’s possible to use the 8SFF 4x U.3 TriMode (not x1) backplane kit, but only if the server was built out with only NVMe drives, and no RAID controller/Smart Array. Personally I’d build of of E.3 drives. For a full BOM review and a bit more detail check out this twitter thread on the topic where I go step by step through the BOM outlining what’s on it, why and what’s missing.
