Here are more details of my testing.
I got 8208 controller, flashed it with the newest firmaware and created a RAID-5 volume of three 500-GB Seagate SATA drives.
Then I made ESX bootable CD and started my server with it.
After initial boot it said something like this: "No storage was found. Do you want to load the drivers manually?". This appears right before the graphical mode starts.
I clearly remember this prompt since when I installed with SATA 300-8X and SATA 300-4XLP. Those times I had to load "megaraid2" driver manually (and edit a couple of text files later). After loading the correct driver those times I had my device listed on the summary drivers screen (under network controllers). But it was not the case with 8208. I've tried to select one by one all the three drivers available which names started with "lsi" (megaraid2, megaraid_sas and one more). But I got no additional lines about new hardware (as if I loaded unmatching driver). So I could see only the entry represening my network card.
I tried to continue the installation and proceed to the graphical mode. It allowed me to select keyboard and mouse configuration and accept the EULA. But when it was the time for disk partitioning it said that it can not continue because no storage was found. So I was forced to quit.
Today I returned 8208 and bought 8708 insted. Looks very similar and two times more expensive but supported officially and no problems with installation (megaraid_sas driver was recognised automatically). I hope it is a better solution anyway as 8208 has no hardware cache.
