Accepted Solutions
{quote
Not that I wouldn't wish to take your word on this, but is there a document out there that confirms that Hardware level raid is required?
Not that i know, but everyone down here can confirm that there is NO software RAID support in ESX, it never has been supported.
It is already fortunate that you can even use your onboard ICH10 chipset controller.
Hardware RAID is expensive for a reason, it has an extra processor that offloads CPU. Software RAID uses your hosts CPU, a CPU you normally don't want to tax extra as you already need it for your virtual machines.
As for your Pike RAID card, it doesn't appear to be on the HCL, so I would say it is not supported.
Or wait, it looks like the Pike RAID card is a rebranded LSI controller with a 1064/1078 chipset which should work. However in your case I would make sure and get a confirmation from ASUS that it works with vSphere before ordering.
While you are at it, do get a Battery Backed Unit (BBU) with the controller as it makes a huge difference in performance as you can then enable the write back cache.
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Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
edit: added note about LSI
{quote
Not that I wouldn't wish to take your word on this, but is there a document out there that confirms that Hardware level raid is required?
Not that i know, but everyone down here can confirm that there is NO software RAID support in ESX, it never has been supported.
It is already fortunate that you can even use your onboard ICH10 chipset controller.
Hardware RAID is expensive for a reason, it has an extra processor that offloads CPU. Software RAID uses your hosts CPU, a CPU you normally don't want to tax extra as you already need it for your virtual machines.
As for your Pike RAID card, it doesn't appear to be on the HCL, so I would say it is not supported.
Or wait, it looks like the Pike RAID card is a rebranded LSI controller with a 1064/1078 chipset which should work. However in your case I would make sure and get a confirmation from ASUS that it works with vSphere before ordering.
While you are at it, do get a Battery Backed Unit (BBU) with the controller as it makes a huge difference in performance as you can then enable the write back cache.
--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
edit: added note about LSI
Hmmm... interesting as you say the same thing in all your posts ... 11 posts and 11 about starwind iscsi... are you working for them?
If so, then it would be decent to add that bit of info to your reply as well.
PS: Not to rain on your parade (your input can be valuable to know)
The post was about local storage and your storage suggestion is about storage in the LAN which isn't the same thing as you would need an extra box for it.
It is also not starwind that supports the RAID drives, but the host operating system unless i'm not mistaken.
--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
Heheh, no worries, it stood out to me as i remembered reading your other replies, which probably says more about me as it does about you 
There's no harm done even if you would work for them, there are more vendor employees replying in these forums, but they normally add that bit of information.
In your case you are just an enthousiastic user and there's nothing wrong with that.
--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
If you are asking about the ASUS PIKE 1078 HW RAID Card, yes you can seen the health statistics of the Array. The PIKE 1078 uses the LSISAS1078 RAID chipset which provides CIM support unlike the Adaptec controllers. One key note about the PIKE 1078 is that there is no battery backup. This is extremely important if you would like to utilize the write back cache which will greatly improve performance with ESX. The real kicker is the documentation for the PIKE 1078 RAID controller on page 2-31 shows a battery backup up present. You will shell out about 400 bucks for the 1078 but is it really worth it with no battery backup. I would just get the lower end controller PIKE 1064E.
Here is the system I put together:
ASUS RS300-E6 with Intel 3420 PCH and Xeon 3440
6 KVR1066D3Q8R7S/4G for a total of 24GB. (No reason to buy the 1333 for the Lynnfield)
ASUS PIKE 1078 RAID controller
4 Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS. Supports RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER).
Note: With the latest line of WD Black drivers you cannot use WDTLER to reset the TLER. I tried with no go and WD confirmed they removed the ability so you have to purchase their RE3 class drivers. 
I configured the controller with the following settings. LSI provides some recommendations:
RAID 10 (If you are thinking RAID 5 check out BAARF)
Stripe Size: 1024kb (to match my VMFS blocks)
Read Policy: Adaptive
Write Policy: Wthru
IO Policy: direct
Disk Cache Policy: enabled
I configured VMFS with multiple blocks with multiple LUNs using the following chart from http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003565 Good info here also:
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/05/14/block-sizes-and-growing-your-vmfs/