VMware Cloud Community
mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

ESXi 4.1 with Adaptec 3805

I am looking around for a RAID card that I can use for ESXi 4.1 to host 10+ virtual machines and I wanted to post a question to see if anybody has had any issues with installing or with the performance using Adaptec 3805 RAID adapter.

I know more cache is better, but how much cache is OK for good performance?

Any information/help would be helpful.

Regards,

Mike

Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

One thing to note with Adaptec cards is that there is currently no Adaptec CIM provider thus you don't get any health data on the controller or attached drives.  A provider is supposedly going to be released in the near future - http://communities.vmware.com/thread/276074.

mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just an update: I have successfully installed ESXi 4.1.

MB: P6X58D-E

HDD: 6 x 500GB WesternDigital

RAM: 24 GB

Best Regards and thank you for your time.

Reply
0 Kudos
BlueMaster2
Contributor
Contributor

I was just wondering, did you get the onboard nic to work with this motherboard?

Thanks!

Reply
0 Kudos
micumo
Contributor
Contributor

have you used a custom oem.tg? The controller is that you used the marvell? the nicthat you used? Thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
mapd07
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello, I did not use the on-board network card. The card that I used was Intel PRO/1000MT. I picked this one from the supported hardware list. In order to make it work with motherboard and RAID Card, I had to disable the VT-d in the BIOS. If I did not do that the ESXi could not see the volume and would just hang on the first boot. Also, I wanted to correct that I actually have 8x500GB HDD connected to this RAID card in RAID 10 configuration. Machine has been non-stop since it was fully set up and so far there are no problems. At the moment it has 5 virtual servers on it.

Regards,

Mike

Reply
0 Kudos
micumo
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks j try

Reply
0 Kudos