What is a good (non-motherboard) card for RAID/SATA on desktops?

[jmarctech]

Ok, so I am still struggling with my Dell T3400 (hangs on install) and I'm considering disabling the motherboard drives and just buying a new card for my sata drives.

I have peeked at the compat list and its a bit confusing in general. Can someone be kind enough to link me to some controllers that are known to be working for ESXi, that fit in a PCI slot, that support SATA, and that can be RAIDED and still work with ESXi. Ideally, I would be able to put 4 drives in (1 TB sata or sata2) devices and raid them, and then be able to check the raid status via software somehow (so if a drive died, I could fix it before it becomes a real problem).

(I apologize if this is "common knowledge" or something, I am new to vmware).

[nick_couchman]

I assume that the T3400 has PCIe slots on it? You'll have a hard time finding a RAID card supported by ESXi that isn't PCIe or PCI-X - standard PCI ones are very hard to come by. The one standard PCI card that I can think of that's listed as working on http://vm-help.com is one of the Promise SATA cards. Unfortunately, these are "fake RAID" cards so I'm not sure that ESXi will actually support RAID on them, but may be able to access drives hung off this controller individually.

[wpatton]

You can install a PCI-X card into a PCI slot, they are backward compatible, however they are then throttled down to the old 33 MHz bus speed of PCI which obviously will become a problem with any significant I/O load.

As Nick says, PCIe or PCI-X natively are a much better option. Note: PCIe cards are NOT compatible with PCI-X or PCI slots

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The SiL3112 will work with RAID and I'm pretty sure someone tested a promise card in RAID mode. The ICH / MCP controllers though are definitely in the fake-RAID category.

[nick_couchman]

You can install most PCI-X cards into PCI slots - I've actually found that a lot of storage controllers in particular are not "notched" for PCI slots and actually must be installed in a PCI-X slot. But, in general it's true that PCI-X cards should be able to work in PCI slots.

[wpatton]

jmarctech,

I have not run into a PCI-X card that will not install in a PCI slot, that said, I would definately follow Nick's advice here and look for a PCI-X or PCIe based solution.

As I stated, PCI-X cards in PCI slots get their performance cut significantly and especially for RAID cards this could be a major issue.

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

[jmarctech]

My brain hurts! It seems like to find out what PCIe (yes, the T3400 has PCIe, thankfully) cards are supported by vmware ESXi (preferably RAID 5 via hardware). I need one that does up to 4 internal drives. I also need one that is not on a 3 week delay (like the Dell ones I found).

Anyone know if these work with ESXi?

Promise FastTrak TX4650 SATA RAID

Adaptec 2240900-R 1430SA PCI Express X4 4-Port SATA

[nick_couchman]

I'd steer cleaer of the Promise FastTrak cards for ESX/ESXi. The Promise cards are "fake RAID" cards - they don't have any RAID intelligence built into the card, they rely on drivers to actually create and maintain the array. As such, if ESXi does see the card, it will see individual drives attached to the card and not the array you've created in the Promise "BIOS" configuration. These cards are good for workstations where you need something slightly better than a software RAID but can't afford a true RAID card. For servers (and ESXi), I'd avoid these cards.

Don't know much about the adaptec ones. Also, Dell may say they have a 3-week delay - in the four to five years my company has been purchasing equipment from Dell, there haven't been very many times that it actually took as long as they said it would - usually the times are a lot faster.

[jmarctech]

Ug, saga continues. I have three T3400s each has 2 sata drives and I can't get ESXi on them. Ok so I know ESXi doesn't work with the built in dell raid (even with raid turned off, normal SATA doesn't work either). I do have an open PCIe slot in these puppys, so I should be able to get some card to work I would think.

I had Dell send me a PERC 6/i, since I saw that listed in the "we think it works" list for ESXi but I got foiled by the cables! The 6/i has an odd cable that covers the power and sata ports and then needs an 8 prong power plug in. T3400 doesn't have hat (has 4 or 6). And, as a kicker, you can't just use normal sata cables, they don't plug into the perc card... I'm asking tell to take a look, but so far they are pretty much clueless on ESXi, point to vmware, and also say that it can't be run on a non-server.

I'm running out of options I guess, I can't find any PCIe raid card (I'd like to have my 2 drives mirrored) ... so I guess I'm willing to go w/o raid. I still need a sata card that works in this system and am looking for recommendations.