ESXi 4.0 and "IDE RAID and SATA RAID are not supported for the VMFS file system"?

[kenapp]

Hi,

I have a question. When I search the VMWare HCL for SATA RAID cards, there is a note in the introductory information stating " IDE RAID and SATA RAID are not supported for the VMFS file system."

Since there is a SATA SCSI card that comes up in my search (LSI MegaRAID SAS 8880EM2), I have a question regarding that statement. Does this mean either:

1. That the hypervisor cannot be installed on a SATA RAID array, but thedatastores for the virtual machines can be on the SATA RAID array.

2. The hypervisor cannot be installed on the SATA RAID array, and neither can the datastores for the virtual machines be on the SATA RAID array.

3. The hypervisor can be installed on a SATA RAID array, but the datastores for the virtual machines can not be on the SATA RAID array.

I do not have a good enough understanding of the VMFS to understand the caviat given with the search results on the HCL. Maybe the card comes up on the HCL because it works with the SAS, even though it will not with SATA RAID?

I attached a pdf of the search results and the introductory notes.

Any assistance provided would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ken

[weinstein5]

The way I interept the statement is number 3 - your can install the hypervidor but you will need other storage where you create a VMFS datastore and and store your virtual machines -

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[danpalacios]

One thing to remember is that in VMware speak "unsupported" is not the same as "doesn't work". There have been many "white box" setups discussed in the forums which leverage sata drives. In fact, vSphere increased its support for sata.

Is this going to be a production system or is it for testing? If it is not business critical, I would go ahead and install and see how it functions. Odds are, if it recognizes it at all, you will be good to go.

[kenapp]

Hi and thanks,

This will be a production server.

As far as SATA RAID goes, I started off testing with a 3ware 9650SE card that supports 2 SATA drives. ESXi didn't even see the drives to install it on, which makes me wonder if the statement about SATA RAID not being compatible with VMFS corresponds to installing ESXi, and doesn't affect creating datastores for virtual machines. I have not gone further with testing yet to find this out, but will.

[danpalacios]

We have installed ESXi 3.5 on HP workstations with the Intel 631xESB SATA RAID controller with no issues at all. In testing, we also installed ESX 3.5 on the same hardware. On both, we created VMFS volumes.

[jayctd]

My ESX4 Test lab box (one of them) Is running a dell T605 with a SAS6ir and 2 SATA disks

It works

I would never run production on it but it does work

Jered Rassier

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[caseystone]

Hello-

We are always trying to build the whitebox list... so, jayctd, are you saying the SAS6ir (sas/sata add-in card) works with RAID 0 and/or RAID 1 volumes in ESXi 4.0? And that is not the PERC 6 card, but just the SAS6ir card? Because that same card is available on some lower end Dells and it's pretty inexpensive. If it does work, is there any reporting within BIOS or ESXi itself as to whether any drives have gone offline? Finally, with that card, how does one actually create and manage the RAID volume?

Thanks.

-Casey

[jayctd]

Ill doublecheck the configuration but I believe it is the SAS6IR in RAID1 configuration ... Ill verify monday

Jered Rassier

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[AndreTheGiant]

Ill doublecheck the configuration but I believe it is the SAS6IR in RAID1 configuration

True. It's a "simply" RAID (hardware) controller:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/power/ps2q08-20080312-Dixit.pdf

Andre

[caseystone]

Thanks for the link Andre. That doc illuminates that the Dell SAS6/iR is basically a re-branded LSI 1068E - a card that is on the official HCL (at least for SAS devices). Perhaps I should expand my question just a bit -- is ESXi 4.0 working with a RAID 1 configuration of SATA drives on this card?

[AndreTheGiant]

is ESXi 4.0 working with a RAID 1 configuration of SATA drives on this card?

I do not use this card (I use the PERC cause is better), so I'm not sure.

But seems yes (from other posts).

Andre

[jayctd]

Yes it is working on a RAID1 configuration of these drives

Jered Rassier

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[LucasAlbers]

you can use 3ware the datastore, check vmware for supported matrix.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1326324#1326324

By simple disk it indicates that it doesn't have a disk controller cache and does not support raid sets outside of raid 0 or raid 1?

[LucasAlbers]

i meant to say check 3ware for supported configurations depending on your raid card.

[ancarte]

I have a situation where I have 2 SATA drives configured to Raid1 and I assumed all is working well

When adding the storage, ESXI sees the 2 drives as a single drive which confirms to me the ESXI system is happy with the Raid setup.

But then I had a problem when I tried to simulate a drive failure, the ESXI system crashed.

Had I not simulated a drive failure and discovered this, I would have been under the impression that my Raid1 was working perfectly well - (talk about false sense of security )

So I am thinking with ESXI 4.0 there is definitely a problem using SATA drives and VMFS file system in a raid setup - it just does not work !!!! - can anybody add some light to this ? Has anyone simulated a drive failure to see if the raid is actually working ?

If I replace my two SATA drives with SAS drives, will this solve my problem? .... or is it he VMFS file system

(BTW, I am using an Intel S5520UR server board in a rackmount Intel SR2600urlx chassis with SAS/SATA backplane and using the onboard hardware LSI raid controller)

[DSTAVERT]

SATA is not the problem and just replacing the drives will not change anything. You need to make sure the RAID controller is on the Hardware Compatibility List and is recognized by ESXi. Many embedded RAID controllers are software based and rely on drivers installed in the OS to provide the RAID functionality. ESXi does not support this type of controller. There may be additional components you can add to the onboard controller.