Anyone using an ASUS KCMA-D8 Motherboard? Opinions?

[BAM279]

Hi,

im looking to move on from my HP ML115G5 up to a larger ESXi whitebox and the ASUS KCMA-D8 looks like a good choice to me.

I was wondering if anyone has this board and if they could share thier experience with VMDirectPath functions?  It uses the AMD SR5670 server chipset which has native support for AMD-Vi (IOMMU v1.2) and vitally, the ASUS BIOS has the option to enable it.  The usual whitebox HCL lists dont mention this board so im hoping someone here may have some firsthand knowledge with on it.

It would also be nice to know what embedded hardware on the board is supported for passthrough, ie. onboard usb host controller etc..

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

BAM.

[DSTAVERT]

A search in the forums doesn't turn up anything. The motherboard itself may be OK. The onboard RAID controller won't work as a RAID controller. Check the NICs against the HCL http://vmware.com/go/hcl IMO you are better off finding an off lease server, a referb, a return or end of manufacturing run machine from Dell, HP, IBM, Fujitsu or one of the other major manufacturers. You can find complete servers that are on the HCL and will perform predictably and reliably for what ever you end up spending to make one.

[BAM279]

Hi,

The 2x onboard Intel GB NICs are supported, as is the south bridge sata controller (although you are correct that the raid is not, as its software based), however I have a Dell PERC 5i in my current HP which runs great so will be using that anyways.

The real selling point for me, apart from the hardware compatibility with ESXi, is that its perfect for having an upgrade path going forward, ie. I plan to buy a single opteron six core and 16gb ram for now, then in future when I need more performance, I can add a 2nd cpu and more ram.

My only remaining doubt is the VM Direct Path I/O to be honest.

Regards,

BAM.

[DSTAVERT]

Not all devices are supported for VMDirectpath http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10170

[BAM279]

Yeah, I realise its in the early stages but it would be nice to at least hear of some success with this board; I would only be looking to get passthrough working intially with a PCI serial/parallel I/O card.

[DSTAVERT]

Do a Google search. See what turns up. A search here dosn't show anything. This board has been around a while so ???? http://vm-help.com or http://ultimatewhitebox.com Read through any reviews. If it isn't a great single OS server it isn't likely to be a great ESXi platform.