ESXi and SSD Raid

[galleon2006]

Hello.

I want to use ESXi with hardware RAID controller.

It will be set up a RAID array with two SSD's

So I want to know how ESXi host will be work this RAID array.

It will be detected as HDD or SSD array? W

And what about TRIM operation and perfomance?

[JarryG]

ESXi does not have any problem with SSD. Concerning its detection, I think raid-array consisting of SSDs will not be automatically detected by ESXi as SSD-storage, because of raid-layer in between. Trim on hw-raid is not supported (with the only exception being raid0 on "some" controllers). This is not a problem, if you leave enough space for over-provisioning (OP), ssd-controller will handle it. Generally, with total OP ~20% there is no performance-drop even with heavily used SSDs.

Just remember, total OP consists of 3 parts:

1. binary/decimal translation (that makes about 4%)

2. factory-set (reserved by firmware, usually ~6-7%)

3. user defined (if you do not use the whole drive-capacity in raid-array, I recommend ~10%)

[Alistar]

Hi,

there is also a useful KB article in how to force the ESXi to detect your SSDs if it does not initially: VMware KB: Enabling the SSD option on SSD based disks/LUNs that are not detected as SSD by default