Configure Datastore with IDE / SATA LUN with ESX 3.5

[wmz]

Hi there,

I am a newbie to ESX. Can you please help ... here is my question:

I am trying to add a Datastore. I am wanting to SATA LUN that I have defined using the on-board SATA RAID Controller

My setup is:

-ESX 3.5 Update 1 Build 82663

-GA-MA78GM-S2H (The manual says the RAID controller is a AMD SB700)

- IDE Hard Disk set as master

- IDE CDROM set as slave

- 2 x SATA drives for Virtual Machines (RAID 0) ** not yet seen by ESX 3.5

After using the 'Add Storage Wizard' and selecting Disk/LUN ... I cannot see any devices listed.

Is there something I need to do to rescan ESX to see the LUN i have created? Is there any commands I need to run from the ESX console to configure the devices tree?

Any commands I can run to view all the disk devices?

Is it possibel to use the extra space on the IDE hard disk to create a datastore?

I know it maybe possible that my on-board SATA RAID Controller just might not be compatible.

Can anyone suggest a good / known to work RAID Card. I have read that the LSI Mega RAID card is a good option. Is any additional configuration need to make this card work?

I appreciate any help ...

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

The AMD SB700 is not a device that ESX will recognize. Here's a link to whiteboxes and SATA controllers that user's have tested with ESX 3.5 / ESXi - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm. You also won't be able to create a datastore on IDE drives. But if you have a spare machine, you could create an iSCSI target or NFS server and use that for your datastore. The LSI MegaRAID SATA 150-4D is a card I've used in the past and it works fine - no additional configuration needed.

[wmz]

Thanks Dave

I will read up on the options you suggest