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thgood
Contributor
Contributor

Need help finding a PCI-X (not PCI express) SATA raid card

I am looking for a PCI-X (not PCI express) SATA raid card compatible with ESXi 3.5 for use in hp dl140 G1 servers. I have reviewed the white box list, however I have not found a clear PCI-X working solution.

We have 8 of these servers and so we have a capital investment that we are not ready to switch out of. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Tom

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Dave_Mishchenko
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Hello Tom, welcome to the VMware Community forums. Have you taken a look at the I/O HCL - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf? There are a few SAS/SATA models officially supported. Page 22 lists the SAS/SATA devices, but there are other SAS devices listed elsewhere in the doc that you might consider.

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thgood
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Hello Dave,

Thank you for welcoming me. I had looked at the document out of the listed sata devices - those seem to be embedded (ibm) or pci express. I need PCI-X

What about: Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 2420SA

It lists vmware esx aacraid as the compatible driver, which seems to be listed in the io guide. What are the chances it will work?

Thanks Tom

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
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I would guess that you'd be OK. Other 2xx0 models have seemed Ok with ESX regular and the 2420SA will be recognized by ESXi - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/Hardware_support.php

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nick_couchman
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Tried Newegg, yet?

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thgood
Contributor
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Yes I have purchased items from newegg before... however as one might expect they do not provide ESXi 3.5 compatibility information.

"I am looking for a PCI-X (not PCI express) SATA raid card compatible with ESXi 3.5"

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nick_couchman
Immortal
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I know they don't provide ESX* compatibility information, however I was looking for about the same thing you're looking for yesterday and was able to limit products down to PCI-X SAS/SATA cards. It takes a little work, but you can then go to the Mfg web site (usually linked directly on the Newegg page) and see which chipset the cards have. There's a pretty good selection of LSI cards and a few adaptec ones, as well.

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thgood
Contributor
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On a positive note the DL140 G1 does show health status including all fans, cpu temp, bios info - but....

I purchased an Adaptec SA2420 sata controller which works configured as raid 1. However there is no health status information for the storage within vmware. The DL140 G1 does not have the advanced capabilities of DL3xx series. This server is going to be deployed in a data center so it would seem there is no way to monitor the raid status.... Any ideas?

Would I be better trying an LSI adapter like

Thanks

Tom

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YellowSaturnGuy
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Hello Tom,

I've run into a small issue that you don't seem to cover here... I have a DL140 G1 as well. I was actually able to get ESX installed on an 80GB PATA using the onboard controller (using these instructions : http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php )

However, now that I have ESX booted, it does not seem to recognize the onboard NICs. Did you run into anything like this?

Thanks,

Tom Vaughan

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Dave_Mishchenko
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What model of NIC does it have? Also could you tell me which model of IDE controller ESXi shows the system as having?

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YellowSaturnGuy
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Hi Dave,

This DL140 G1 has two built-in Broadcom gigabit NICs, BCM5704 with 14e4:1648 PCI IDs (on the list from what I can see...)

ServerWorks CSB6 Southbridge : Class 0601 : 1166:0203

ServerWorks CSB6 RAID/IDE Controller : Class 0101: 1166:0213

I only have a 100MB switch... could it have anything to do with the NICs not being connected at 1000MB? That doesn't make any sense to me, but I don't know this product very well yet...

Hope this helps some!

Tom Vaughan

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thgood
Contributor
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My onboard NICs worked without any config changes. I am using the generic esxi not the HP customized version. My test network is running at 100 not 1000.

Thanks for sharing the IDE info - I still really need raid with at least basic monitoring - otherwise the raid is useless in a colo facility.

Tom

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chillware
Contributor
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Hi, The Adaptec 2410SA (4 port) and 2610SA (6 port) are both PCI-X, and work in ESXi. I am running th 2410SA myself right now. The only draw back is they are only rated at SATA 1 speed, 150MBs.. But other than that it runs great!

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stivw
Contributor
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i am using a adaptec 2420SA but i don't see the health status either ... bios/firmware version is 5.2-0[11564]

will/could an update to the newest firmware help? (I don't want to "just try" this - and be stuck with the same problem again...)

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
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As of Update 2, there were no CIM providers for Adaptec cards so the health status won't be available for them. Once they are included, it will start with newer / supported controllers so I wouldn't expect the 2xx0SA cards to ever work to display a health status.

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thgood
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Dave,

Thanks for the extended info, without health status this card is pretty useless in a production environment. What about the LSI cards we talked about above - would they provide raid health status?

Thanks

Tom

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SteveF1
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Can you tell me what firmware you had on your Adaptec 2420SA card please? I'm trying to get ESXi working on an HP DL140 G1 with the same card but it won't recognise it.

Thanks

Steve

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Felix001
Contributor
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I am also having the same issues with the HP DL140 G1 and getting it to work with a SA2420 with 2 x Seagate 500Gbs...

Ill keep you posted on what I find....

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SteveF1
Contributor
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Hey Felix001 I got it working after many hours of pulling my hair out. You need to disable ACPI in the the VM Kernel. When you boot from the installation CD press tab as soon as it starts loading. Then after the first .gz file name insert "acpi=off" then press enter. The install will now work but when you boot the system it will fail again. You also need to add this parameter to the boot.cfg file on the 2nd partition. I did this by booting the server from a Ubuntu Live CD which will auto detect and mount the partitions. Open boot.cfg and and you should see a line that says kernelopt=. Just add acpi=off here.

My server is working great now... I hope this works for you too.

Steve

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Felix001
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Thanks for the feedback.... really appreciate it.... can I ask... How the did you find that out .. ??

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