gunmetal
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi Hardware RAID ISSUE.

Hello,

I have A Dedicated Server of Asus & Supermicro, I am trying to Configure Intel Hardware RAID on ESXi 7.0, Like I am trying to Configure RAID 0 With 2 Disk on 1TB After Configuring RAID From Intel Bios, and after that, I boot up to ESXi and during Installation, it shows 2 Separate Disk of 1TB but it should show 1Disk of 1TB, Any Solution For that?

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bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

Intel RST/RSTe is not true hardware RAID. It is pseudo-RAID/software RAID.

For ESXi RAID, you need a true hardware RAID controller that is found in the VMware ESXi HCL.

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Any Solution For that?

Yes, use a supported RAID controller and supported server-class hardware. Also, unless you truly don't care about your data you should never be using RAID-0 for a VMFS datastore.

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gunmetal
Contributor
Contributor

So it means I will not be able to create a Hardware RAID on intel based controller, is there any way to configure Soft RAID.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Yes, get a supported RAID controller as two people have now told you.

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gunmetal
Contributor
Contributor

OK Hardware RAID is not Supported Except HCL as replied below, Noted That.

Is there any way that I can configure the Soft RAID VIA CLI Method, For Ex Something zpool, in ZFS Filesystem.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Not in ESXi there is not. And software ("fake") RAID is generally terrible and should generally be avoided.

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gunmetal
Contributor
Contributor

oh that's sad because there are other hypervisors like proxmox which support's both, also I'm sure ESXi is not based upon any Linux distro.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Correct, ESXi is not Linux nor is it based upon it.

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gunmetal
Contributor
Contributor

ok thanks for the update that saves the sweat.

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BAHRAM1024
Contributor
Contributor

"you should never be using RAID-0 for a VMFS datastore"

Why?

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rcstevensonaz
Contributor
Contributor

It looks like Intel RST Volume Management Device (VMD) with RAID 1 for NVMe drivers is supported as of early 2022 for both boot and data volumes:  Using Intel VMD driver for vSphere to create NVMe RAID1

I have no idea whether using Intel VMD for RAID 1 is a good idea or not. But, RAID 0, even if it was supported, remains a horrible idea regardless :slightly_smiling_face:

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