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dashdave
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Advice on Sata Raid controller

Hi All

After a month long test of ESXi 3.5 I now want to configure a more robust system based on a Dell SC 1420, but with an upgraded Sata Raid controller. I need to choose a mid price Sata Raid controller ( £120-£150 ) but am worried about compatibility.

Can anyone recommend a Sata Raid that will give good performance and is supported by ESXi 3.5

I'd rather not have to alter configs and such, even though other people seem to have done this sucessfully.

Dave

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Nemasis
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Head over to www.vm-help.com. (Dave M's awesome site) You'll find a whitebox HCL there along with Sata controllers. Note that those llisted are not supported by VMware, but have been confirmed to work.

Nemasis

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Goodspd
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Hi,

If you search in the forums there are topics about this matter, so you can choose a working SATA controller to work with ESX3.5.

Regards,

Goodspeed

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dashdave
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Thanks for the reply. The problem is that there is too MUCH discussion and speculation. What would be ideal is a short list of medium spec Sata Raid controllers that definitley are supported.

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rpcblast
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if your looking in the 400-600$ range, I have had good luck with the lsi 8708 SAS/SATA raid controllers. Also, if your doing this in an older system, and are ok with used equip, some of the older adaptec SATA raid controllers such as the AAR-2610SA work well too(I am running that one in an older dual xeon box and have had no issues)

dashdave
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Thanks for your advice. I have bought a adaptec SATA raid controllers AAR-2610SA, brand new from EBAY for £65 ( $100) looking forward to trying it out.

Cheers!

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dashdave
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Oops Forgot to mark as Answered!

Would it not be worthwhile to compile an unofficial list of kit that members KNOW work of given hardware platforms. It would save a lot of searching and hassle.

:smileygrin: Dave

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Nemasis
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Head over to www.vm-help.com. (Dave M's awesome site) You'll find a whitebox HCL there along with Sata controllers. Note that those llisted are not supported by VMware, but have been confirmed to work.

Nemasis

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imxuk
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DashDave, are you able to monitor the RAID array status with the 2610? Ive been reading some posts that might suggest this was no longer possible from U2 onwards, im looking at putting 4TB of storage on the card, so would need to know i could monitor drive failures!!

Curious to know, as ive spotted the same £65 card on ebay Smiley Wink

Thanks,

Ed

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