VMware Communities: Question on RAID Controller ...

VMware

Up to Discussions in VI: VMware ESXi™ 3.5

This Question is Answered

1 "helpful" answer available (6 pts)

9 Replies Last post: Jan 28, 2009 5:44 AM by Arostov

Question on RAID Controller posted: Oct 26, 2008 11:40 AM

bhavin78

63 posts since
Sep 20, 2006

I tried to install ESX 3i but it did not recoginse my SATA HD, How can I use local RAID controller on mother board (GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G) to install ESX 3.0?

Re: Question on RAID Controller

1. Oct 26, 2008 1:38 PM

in response to: bhavin78

ericsl

111 posts since
Dec 9, 2007

You need to use a RAID card that is on the HCL. Google vmware hcl, it's the top item.

FYI, certain LSI and Dell cerc controllers will work and recognize SATA drives. There is no way to install a driver in ESX.

I just installed ESXi on an old Dell PowerEdge 1800 with a cerc controller and it recognized the RAID setup...

HTH,

ERic

Re: Question on RAID Controller

2. Oct 26, 2008 4:27 PM

in response to: ericsl

bhavin78

63 posts since
Sep 20, 2006

Thanks for the reply. My built in RAID Card is AMD SB700 which in not compatible with ESXi.

Can I try to boot from USB and use the SATA drives?

I tried to book from USb and this is the error I got,
Cannot get bank 1 paramaters.
Warning: Bank 1 partition type invalid. Ignoring.
Cannot get bank 2 paramaters.
Warning: Bank 2 partition type invalid. Ignoring.
Panic: No useable banks found.

Re: Question on RAID Controller

3. Oct 26, 2008 6:05 PM

in response to: bhavin78

ericsl

111 posts since
Dec 9, 2007

If ESX does not see the SATA drives during install it won't see them booting from any other drive either. You can get a Dell PCI-xxx Cerc RAID card that will work for cheap.

Eric

Re: Question on RAID Controller

4. Oct 26, 2008 8:00 PM

in response to: bhavin78

Dave.Mishchen…

8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

Your post has been moved to the ESXi forum. ESXi (and ESX) 3.5 and higher will recognize and work with certain SATA controllers. You can get some info on that here - www.vm-help.com.

Re: Question on RAID Controller

5. Oct 26, 2008 8:02 PM

in response to: bhavin78

Dave.Mishchen…

8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005

What process did you use to create the USB boot drive? Looks bootbank is corrupt.

Re: Question on RAID Controller

6. Oct 28, 2008 3:37 PM

in response to: Dave.Mishchen…

ericsl

111 posts since
Dec 9, 2007

Dave,

Yup, ESX does recognize some SATA controllers. For instance it recognizes the Intel 5000 series controllers, but often NOT the RAID portion, so it kinda doesn't work because the drives are JBOD. Unless one is comfotable with that.

Eric