microserver esxi hardware raid....?

[RimBlock]

Anyway in short, avoid the microserver if your devices need VMDirectPath. I'll probably build a ITX box with a Zotac itx motherboard which is fully supported by ESXi (and performs much better)

Just to clarify, on this, ESXi does not fully support the majority, if not all of the Zotac boards. To my knowledge, they use Realtek lan chipsets. Realtek is not on the ESXi Hardware Compatibility list (HCL) at all for anything and therefore is not certified to work with ESXi (same for Zotac). Having said that, a number of people have said that the Realtek drivers for the lan are included in the supplied ESXi driver sets so they do work. Check the lan chipsets are working before purchasing or beware you may need a separate lan card like the Intel CT PCIe network card.

I only make this distinction as if the drivers stopped working, after a patch for example, then VMWare would have every right to point you to the HCL and and say 'not supported, not our problem'.

RB

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Just to clarify, on this, ESXi does not fully support the majority, if not all of the Zotac boards. To my knowledge, they use Realtek lan chipsets. Realtek is not on the ESXi Hardware Compatibility list (HCL) at all for anything and therefore is not certified to work with ESXi (same for Zotac). Having said that, a number of people have said that the Realtek drivers for the lan are included in the supplied ESXi driver sets so they do work. Check the lan chipsets are working before purchasing or beware you may need a separate lan card like the Intel CT PCIe network card.

I only make this distinction as if the drivers stopped working, after a patch for example, then VMWare would have every right to point you to the HCL and and say 'not supported, not our problem'.

RB

The Realtek adapter on the Zotac's are 8111e's which are supported and many posts on the VMWare KB show evidence of that. This is true with ESXi 5.0, 4.1 and below needed to have these drivers added manually.

 

[RimBlock]

The Realtek adapter on the Zotac's are 8111E's which are supported and many posts on the VMWare KB show evidence of that. This is true with ESXi 5.0, 4.1 and below needed to have these drivers added manually

Yes the point I was making is that whilst they may work, they are not certified to do so.

RB

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Yes the point I was making is that whilst they may work, they are not certified to do so.

RB

Correct but there are many devices not listed on the HCL that actually do work, the HCL only shows the devices that were tested for compatibility. Therefore it's best to search the VMWare site and google see which other hardware works and whether anyone has been successful, I'm sure they don't keep that list complete and up to date as well as they probably should...

I do agree that an uncertified device could stop working after a new update or patch of some sort and in that case a backup should be made before patching and restored if it breaks anything just to play it safe.


ESXi 5.0 has much better hardware support compared to 4.1 and I'm hoping future versions provide better support for Hardware Raid Controllers like mine to be able to manage them from vSphere client or even vCenter itself instead of having to reboot into the controller's BIOS everytime to make a change. I may just have to get the HP RAC to do this remotely. Haven't had any success using a guest machine to use the management utility so far as ESXi doesn't support passthrough on the microserver which is a big shame

 

[RimBlock]

I'd say the Zotac H67ITX-C-E Intel H67 one which OCUK sell which for a mini-ITX is fantastic, I'd pair that with an i3. Be aware that it's an HTPC motherboard but would still work fine, it's probably just a tad overkill if you're just using it as a file server as you can probably get a cheaper simpler board without the funky HTPC stuff if you're not likely to need it.

Just a note on this as well. The H67 chipset and the i3 both do not support VT-d. Whilst some manufacturers have implemented VT-d on H67, officially Intel have claimed the implementation is flawed and is only properly supported in the Q67 and above chipsets. If you are happy without VT-d then the ECS H67H2-I is generally cheaper and has much the same features. It also uses the same lan chipset. If you need the WiFi then you can grab a half size mini-PCIe from one of the auction sites and add it in leaving the PCIe x16 slot still free.

Zotac Z68 boards should support VT-d as will the Intel DQ67EP (which I use). They need to be paired with an i5/i7 (non K-Series) though for VT-d. The other obvious choice is the S1200KP if you want server level but that is a bit more costly. The advantage is that it supports E3 Xeons (around the same cost of an i5-2500K but with 4 cores and hyperthreading so gives 8 threads like an i7) and it supports ECC and non-ECC ram. One lan port is ESXi natively supported and the other can be 'hacked' in. Add a SAS card and it is a great combination. Supermicro do a couple of mITX boards too like the X9SCV-Q but these tend to be based around Intels mobile processors. Lower power but harder to find and more expensive usually. The boards are also quite costly.

RB

 

[RimBlock]

ESXi 5.0 has much better hardware support compared to 4.1 and I'm hoping future versions provide better support for Hardware Raid Controllers like mine to be able to manage them from vSphere client or even vCenter itself instead of having to reboot into the controller's BIOS everytime to make a change. I may just have to get the HP RAC to do this remotely. Haven't had any success using a guest machine to use the management utility so far as ESXi doesn't support passthrough on the microserver which is a big shame

Personally ESXi still not supporting the Intel 82579V chipset natively is a ***[rather inconvenient state of affairs]***. There are some great mITX boards out there with this chipset that would go well with ESXi.

RB

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Just a note on this as well. The H67 chipset and the i3 both do not support VT-d. Whilst some manufacturers have implemented VT-d on H67, officially Intel have claimed the implementation is flawed and is only properly supported in the Q67 and above chipsets. If you are happy without VT-d then the ECS H67H2-I is generally cheaper and has much the same features. It also uses the same lan chipset. If you need the WiFi then you can grab a half size mini-PCIe from one of the auction sites and add it in leaving the PCIe x16 slot still free.

Zotac Z68 boards should support VT-d as will the Intel DQ67EP (which I use). They need to be paired with an i5/i7 (non K-Series) though for VT-d. The other obvious choice is the S1200KP if you want server level but that is a bit more costly. The advantage is that it supports E3 Xeons (around the same cost of an i5-2500K but with 4 cores and hyperthreading so gives 8 threads like an i7) and it supports ECC and non-ECC ram. One lan port is ESXi natively supported and the other can be 'hacked' in. Add a SAS card and it is a great combination. Supermicro do a couple of mITX boards too like the X9SCV-Q but these tend to be based around Intels mobile processors. Lower power but harder to find and more expensive usually. The boards are also quite costly.

RB

Thanks for the info, the S1200KP definitely does seem the way to go as a proper server board + it's pretty much the same price as the Zotac and I'm liking those dual ethernet ports