Tried Newegg, yet?

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.

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

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

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!

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.