PROCUREMENT DIVISON

RFQ-260026002

Invitation to Bid – Ceph Storage Cluster Expansion

100 Stellarator Road ♦Princeton ♦NJ♦ 08540-0451

Dear Prospective Bidder, The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) invites your firm to submit a firm-fixed-price proposal for the procurement of enterprise COTS Seagate storage drives, high-density server hardware, gateway nodes, and specialized remote deployment services to support our expanded high-performance Ceph Storage Cluster.

1. Scope of Work Overview

The selected vendor will be responsible for supplying, delivering, and supporting a complete, turnkey hardware and service solution according to the following specifications:

• 4x Storage Server Nodes: 45Drives F8X3 2.0 Chassis (AMD EPYC 8324P, 256GB RAM, dual 2700W PSUs, 25GbE connectivity, Rocky Linux 9 + Houston OS).

• 144x Primary OSD Drives: COTS Seagate Exos 24TB Enterprise Hard Drives (SATA/SAS).

• 16x Journal/DB SSDs: KIOXIA XD8 1.92TB E1.S Enterprise NVMe SSDs.

• 2x Gateway Nodes: 45Drives 1U Gateway Nodes (AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 128GB RAM, 800W redundant PSUs, 25GbE connectivity).

• Remote Cluster Configuration Service: Initial cluster deployment and initialization via supervised remote access.

• Support & Warranty: 1-Year Core Annual Service Plan and 1-Year Full Hardware Warranty.

2. Proposal Submission Guidelines

• Submission Deadline: Wednesday, August 19, 2026, by Close of Business (4:30 PM EST).

• Delivery Terms: FOB Destination (PPPL, Princeton, NJ 08543), Freight Prepaid and Included.

• Pricing Terms: Firm-fixed-price valid for at least 60 days post-deadline. Offerors must provide the most favorable academic or federal government pricing available.

• Required Attachments:

1. Appendix A – Bidder Response & Pricing Form (Completed & Signed).

2. PPPL Representations & Certifications Form (PPL-PD-RC2).

3. Key Schedule & Contact Information

Milestone / Detail Information

RFQ Issue Date Friday, August 14, 2026

Submission Deadline Wednesday, August 19, 2026 (4:30 PM EST)

Required Equipment Delivery Date On or before September 30, 2026

RFQ Procurement Contact Marissa Zara, Procurement Specialist

PROCUREMENT DIVISON

RFQ-260026002

Invitation to Bid – Ceph Storage Cluster Expansion

100 Stellarator Road ♦Princeton ♦NJ♦ 08540-0451

Milestone / Detail Information

Contact Email Mzara@PPPL.GOV

Contact Phone (609) 243-2397

Please submit your complete proposal packet electronically to Mzara@PPPL.GOV before the deadline. Late or incomplete submissions may not be considered for award.

Thank you for your interest in partnering with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Sincerely, Marissa Zara Procurement Specialist

REQUEST FOR QUOTATION

(THIS IS NOT AN ORDER)

RFQ NO. 260026002

TO:

RFQ ISSUE DATE: 08/14/2026

SUBMIT QUOTE BY:

August 19, 2026 Close of Business: 4:30 pm (EST)

COMPLETE ALL ITEMS AND FORWARD QUOTE TO THE ATTENTION OF THE RFQ CONTACT VIA REGULAR OR EXPRESS MAIL AT THE APPLICABLE ADDRESS SHOWN BELOW. QUOTES MAY BE FAXED OR EMAILED TO THE RFQ CONTACT BY THE DEADLINE IN LIEU OF

A HARD COPY.

RFQ CONTACT:

MARISSA ZARA, PROCUREMENT SPECIALIST

PHONE: 609-243-2397

EMAIL: Mzara@PPPL.GOV

SCHEDULE

ITEM

NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), managed and operated by Princeton University under Prime Contract DE-AC02- 09CH11466 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is soliciting firm-fixed-price proposals for the provision of enterprise COTS Seagate storage drives, high-density server hardware, gateway nodes, and specialized deployment services for an expanded high-performance Ceph Storage Cluster.

[ ] SEE SCHEDULE ON FOLLOWING PAGE TOTAL QUOTED AMOUNT Appendix A – Bidder Response Form

PPPL REQUESTS THE FOLLOWING TERMS: SUPPLIER QUOTES THE FOLLOWING TERMS:

FOB: Destination FOB:

FREIGHT: Prepaid and Included FREIGHT:

DELIVER BY: 09/30/2026 DELIVERY: DAYS AFTER RECEIPT OF ORDER

PAYMENT TERMS: NET 30 PAYMENT TERMS: Net 30 or Net 15 (Small Business, if applicable)

QUOTES SHALL REMAIN FIRM FOR 60 DAYS AFTER THE RFQ DEADLINE QUOTE EXPIRES __ DAYS AFTER THE RFQ DEADLINE.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: THE PPPL TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS (ATTACHED) SHALL APPLY TO ANY ORDER RESULTING FROM THIS RFQ.

SUPPLIER [ ] WILL [ ] WILL NOT ACCEPT AN ORDER BASED ON THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF “WILL NOT” IS CHECKED, SUPPLIER SHALL PROVIDE ALTERNATE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, NOTE EXCEPTIONS IN QUOTE, OR PROVIDE APPLICABLE GSA CONTRACT IN SPACE PROVIDED BELOW.

GSA CONTRACT: SUPPLIER’S QUOTE IS BASED ON THE GSA CONTRACT NO. __________________________. PRICES QUOTED ARE NET OF GSA DISCOUNTS AND THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS GSA CONTRACT WILL APPLY IN LIEU OF PPPL’S TERMS AND CONDITIONS IF SUPPLIER IS AWARDED AN ORDER.

[ ] SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE: WHEN CHECKED, SUPPLIERS ARE NOTIFIED THAT THIS RFQ IS SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESS. QUOTES ARE BEING SOLICITED ONLY FROM SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND PPPL INTENDS TO MAKE AWARD RESULTING FROM THIS RFQ TO A SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN. QUOTES RECEIVED FROM FIRMS THAT ARE NOT SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS SHALL BE CONSIDERED NONRESPONSIVE AND WILL BE REJECTED.

SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM REPRESENTATIONS: BASED ON NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE 334112 AND RELATED SIZE STANDARD OF 1,250 EMPLOYEES SUPPLIER REPRESENTS THAT IT IS (CHECK ALL THAT APPLY):

SMALL BUSINESS HUBZONE CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS LARGE BUSINESS

SMALL DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

WOMAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS 8A CERTIFIED SMALL BUSINESS FOREIGN SUPPLIER

[X ] WHEN CHECKED, A PPPL REPRESENTATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS FORM IS PROVIDED WITH THIS RFQ. QUOTERS ARE INSTRUCTED TO COMPLETE AND

SUBMIT THAT FORM WITH THEIR QUOTE IN LIEU OF COMPLETING THE ABOVE.

PRICE DISCOUNTS: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IS AN ACCREDITED INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING IN THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY AND MANAGES AND OPERATES PPPL UNDER PRIME CONTRACT DE-AC02-09CH11466 WITH THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY. BASED ON THIS DUAL STATUS, PPPL MAY QUALIFY FOR ACADEMIC AND/OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRICES/DISCOUNTS. SUPPLIER SHALL QUOTE BASED ON THE MOST FAVORABLE DISCOUNT PROGRAM AVAILABLE TO PPPL. THE UNDERSIGNED HEREBY CERTIFIES THAT THE QUOTED PRICES ARE NOT IN EXCESS OF PRICES CHARGED TO ANY OTHER SIMILAR CUSTOMER FOR SAME OR SIMILAR

ITEMS/QUANTITIES.

mailto:mzara@pppl.gov

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), managed and operated by Princeton University under Prime Contract DE-AC02- 09CH11466 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is soliciting firm-fixed-price proposals for the provision of enterprise COTS Seagate storage drives, high-density server hardware, gateway nodes, and specialized deployment services for an expanded high-performance Ceph Storage Cluster.

2.0 HARDWARE AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The requested Ceph Cluster infrastructure consists of the following hardware and storage components, based on validated solution architecture:

Item Description Qty Component Specifications Key Features / Hardware

Storage Server Nodes (45Drives F8X3 2.0 Chassis)

4 Chassis: 4U Graphite Sandtex (36.8"L x 17.125"W x 6.86"H) CPU: 1x AMD EPYC 8324P (32 Cores / 64 Threads, 2.65GHz Base / 3GHz Turbo) RAM: 4x 64GB DDR5-RDIMM (256GB total) Motherboard: Gigabyte ME03-CE0 - F8X Power: Dual Redundant 2700W PSU Boot Drive: Micron PRO 5400 480GB (Single + 1 Redundant) OS: Rocky Linux 9 + Houston Network: 2x 2-Port 25Gb/s SFP28 HBA: 1x LSI 9600-16i, 3x LSI 9600-24i

High-Density Ceph OSD Storage Node

COTS Seagate Storage Drives

144 Seagate Exos 24TB Enterprise Hard Drives

(SATA/SAS)

Primary High-Capacity OSD Storage

KIOXIA NVMe SSDs 16 KIOXIA XD8 1.92TB E1.S 15mm Enterprise SSDs Ceph DB/WAL & High-Speed Journaling

45Drives 1U Gateway Nodes

2 Chassis: 1U Graphite Sandtex (21.0"L x 17.0"W x 1.75"H) CPU: 1x AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 Cores / 32 Threads, 4.5GHz Base / 5.7GHz Turbo) RAM: 4x 32GB DDR5-UDIMM (128GB total) Motherboard: Gigabyte MC13-LE1 Power: Zippy 800W Redundant PSU Boot Drive: Micron PRO 5400 480GB (Single + 1 Redundant) OS: Rocky Linux 9 + Houston Network: 1x 2-Port 25Gb/s SFP28

Ceph Gateway / Access Control

Remote Cluster Configuration Service

1 Mandatory Service: Initial cluster configuration required remotely (supervised remote access). Including node deployment with operating system and tools, IP address assignment, cluster initialization and drive configuration.

Deployment & Configuration

Annual Service & Warranty

1 1-Year Core Annual Service Plan + 1-Year Full Hardware Warranty

Ongoing Maintenance & Technical Support

3.0 CLUSTER SYSTEM CAPACITIES & OPERATIONAL SPECS

The complete turnkey solution must deliver the following performance and physical parameters:

• Clustered Storage Architecture: Erasure Coding 4+2 setup across all 4 server nodes.

• Raw Capacity: 3,456 TB (3.456 PB) raw HDD storage.

• Usable Capacity: ~2,304 TB (2.304 PB) net usable storage under EC 4+2.

• Journal / DB Acceleration: 16x 2TB NVMe drives mapped for Ceph metadata and WAL/DB.

• Power & Rack Parameters: 18U total rack space required; Cycle-up power 4,400W; Steady state power 2,800W; 12 power connectors; 20 SFP28 network ports.

4.0 CONFIGURATION REQUIREMENT

Initial cluster configuration required remotely (supervised remote access). Including node deployment with operating system and tools, IP address assignment, cluster initialization and drive configuration.

5.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS & GENERAL PROVISIONS

5.1. Submission Deadline: All proposals must be received electronically via email by no later than COB on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 (4:30 PM EST).

5.2. Terms & Pricing Validity: Quoted prices must remain firm for a minimum of 60 days following the submission deadline.

Delivery terms must be FOB Destination, Freight Prepaid and Included.

5.3. Price Discounts: Princeton University is an accredited institution of higher learning in NJ and manages PPPL under DOE Prime Contract DE-AC02-09CH11466. Offerors shall quote based on the most favorable academic or federal government pricing available.

5.4. Required Attachments for Submission: Bidders must complete and submit the official Bidder Response Form, along with the PPPL Representations & Certifications Form (PPL-PD-RC2).

5.5. Applicable Provisions: PPL-PD-CTC Commercial Terms and Conditions, PPL-PD-S Service Contract Act, and PPL-PD-T Provisions for Work Performed on PPPL Site apply.

APPENDIX A: BIDDER RESPONSE & PRICING FORM

PPPL Solicitation RFQ-260026002 | Deadline: August 19, 2026 (4:30 PM EST)

SECTION 1: BIDDER INFORMATION

Company Legal Name: [ Enter Company Name Here ]

Primary Contact Name & Title: [ Enter Contact Person Name & Title ]

Email Address & Phone Number: [ Enter Email Address | Phone Number ]

Company Address: [ Enter Street Address, City, State, Zip ]

UEI / CAGE Code / GSA Contract #: [ Enter Unique Entity ID / CAGE Code / GSA Contract Number ]

SECTION 2: BUSINESS SIZE & REPRESENTATIONS

Please check all applicable classifications under NAICS code for Computer & Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing:

[ ] Small Business [ ] Small Disadvantaged Business [ ] Woman-Owned Small Business

[ ] HUBZone Certified Small Business [ ] Veteran-Owned Small Business [ ] Service-Disabled Vet-Owned

[ ] Large Business [ ] Non-Profit Organization [ ] Foreign Supplier

SECTION 3: FIRM-FIXED PRICING SCHEDULE

Provide firm-fixed pricing in USD for all line items. All prices must include FOB Destination delivery to PPPL.

Item

Description / Hardware Specification Qty Unit Price (USD) Total Price (USD)

1 45Drives F8X3 2.0 High-Density Storage Servers (AMD EPYC 8324P, 256GB RAM, Dual 2700W PSU, 25GbE) 4 $ [ ] $ [ ]

2 COTS Seagate Exos 24TB Enterprise Hard Drives (HDD) 144 Included in Item 1 / $ [ ] Included in Item 1 / $ [ ]

3 KIOXIA XD8 1.92TB E1.S NVMe Enterprise SSDs 16 Included in Item 1 / $ [ ] Included in Item 1 / $ [ ]

4 45Drives 1U Gateway Server Nodes (AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 128GB RAM, 800W Redundant PSU, 25GbE) 2 $ [ ] $ [ ]

5 Remote Cluster Configuration Service (Node OS/tools, IP assignment, cluster initialization, drive configuration) 1 $ [ ] $ [ ]

6 Annual Service Plan (Core - 1 Year) & 1- Year Full Hardware Warranty 1 $ [ ] $ [ ]

TOTAL PROPOSED FIRM-FIXED PRICE (USD): $ [ ]

SECTION 4: TECHNICAL & SERVICE COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST

RFP Requirement / Specification Comply? (Yes/No) Bidder Notes / Clarifications

Mandatory Remote Config Verbiage: Initial cluster configuration required remotely (supervised remote access), including node OS/tools, IP assignment, cluster init, and drive config.

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ Note compliance or exceptions ]

Hardware Specs: 45Drives 4x F8X3 2.0 Nodes

(AMD EPYC 8324P, 256GB RAM, LSI HBA,

25GbE) & 2x 1U Gateway Nodes (AMD Ryzen

9 7950X, 128GB RAM).

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ Note compliance or exceptions ]

Drive Specs: 144x COTS Seagate Exos 24TB HDDs & 16x KIOXIA XD8 1.92TB NVMe SSDs.

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ Note compliance or exceptions ]

Commercial & Delivery Terms: FOB Destination, Freight Prepaid, Net 30 Payment Terms, Quote valid for 60 days.

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ Note compliance or exceptions ]

PPPL Standard Provisions: Agreement with PPL-PD-CTC Commercial Terms and Conditions.

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ Note compliance or exceptions ]

SECTION 5: OFFEROR SIGNATURE & AUTHORIZATION

By signing below, the offeror certifies that the quoted prices are firm, reasonable, and based on the most favorable commercial/academic pricing available to PPPL.

Authorized Signature:

Date:

Typed / Printed Name:

[ Enter Name ]

Title:

[ Enter Title ]