SATA RAID Controller

[BobSimon]

I plan to build a lab server to learn VMware so it would be good for my hardware to be able to work with ESXi 4.1.  I'd like to install the hypervisor on a thumb drive and use four 500GB SATA drives in RAID 10 to provide 1T of mirrored storage for the VM datastores.  Is this a reasonable approach?

I searched the VMware Compatibility Guide for a suitable controller to buy.

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=io&productId=1...[]=24&datePosted=-1&partnerId[]=-1&ioTypeId[]=14&manufacturer[]=-1&vid=&did=&svid=&ssid=&rorre=0

The 3rd paragraph of introductory information says, "NOTE: IDE RAID and SATA RAID are not supported for the VMFS file system."  Surely this must be a mistake.  Or does it really mean don't bother with SATA; plan on spending the extra money for SAS?

[DSTAVERT]

They aren't supported in a production environment. They may work just fine but if you have issues with a sata or IDE raid controller you may not have much sympathy in a VMware service contract incident.

[Hoschi201110141]

Hi

I have the same Problem. It sems realy... ESXi 4.1 soes not support SATA.

With ESX 3.5 this was not a problem. An TX2+ controller worked fine with my Gigabyte Mainboard.

I think about the posibilty to boot the ESXi 4.1 from an USB-Stick and mount some Datastore per NFS or iSCSI

from an Fileserver. This fileserver can be build with SATA disk's.

Greetings

Hoschi

[DSTAVERT]

I don't know this to have changed but as far as I know there are no included CIM modules in ESXi that can provide hardware feedback for Adaptec Controllers. You may want to check the Adaptec website to see whether there is an offline bundle that includes these modules. LSI CIM modules are included in the generic install. Manufacturer specific ESXi installs (HP, Dell, IBM, etc) do include CIM modules for their respective devices, controller, NIC, etc.

[BobSimon]

Dave,

Thanks for explaining that some controllers will function but won't be supported by VMware if there is a problem.  After doing a bit more reading, my current understanding is that if I want SATA RAID, I need to purchase a controller that satisfies two requirements: 1) it must do RAID in its hardware and 2) ESXi 4.x must include a driver for it.  Right?

From what I can tell, one of the popular controllers that meets these requirements is Adaptek 2405.  I haven't started reading about CIM yet but if I understood your last post correctly, I need a CIM module for ESXi from Adaptek in order to get feedback when a drive in the array goes offline.

Before I start cross-referencing all the suppported SAS/SATA controllers, do you happen to know of one that's cheaper than the 2405?

Bob

[DSTAVERT]

The HCL will satisfy the driver question. Any card you choose should have a battery backed RAM cache module available and you should get it. Storage performance will suffer greatly without it.

I would look at LSI since the CIM modules are part of the normal install. I don't believe Adaptec has any CIM support for ESXi.

CIM is similar to SNMP. The CIM module is a go between the hardware and ESXi.

[BobSimon]

Dave,

If I get a controller with CIM support, how is a drive offline condition reported in ESXi 4.1?  Does a window pop up in VCenter or an icon turns from green to red, or what?

[J1mbo]

Yes, if you have vCentre email alerts can be configured for hardware events.  You will also see a warning periodically that the battery is charging (due to the controller battery learn cycles, typically every 3 months).

Without vCentre, you need to script some health check routine - I've posted about this with some vSphere client screen shots here.

Dell's Perc 6i is a good controller for home lab use with SATA drives - cheap, health reporting supported by 'vanilla' ESXi, and has SATA NCQ support.

Hope that helps.