ESXi 7.0 and HPE Smart Array S100i

[silkie 2]

Is there no way to set the disk controller to AHCI mode like in the Gen8's?

[Noth 4]

6 hours ago, silkie said:

Is there no way to set the disk controller to AHCI mode like in the Gen8's?

You'd think so but there is nothing in the documentation about it, nor about setting the S100i into JBOD mode. I don't own one of these machines so I can't comment further.

[sandwern 6]

6 hours ago, silkie said:

Is there no way to set the disk controller to AHCI mode like in the Gen8's?

 

You may set controller to AHCI mode, but all S100i RAID functions will be disabled.

If you need any screenshots from UEFI configuration, I can post it here.

Edited June 22, 2020 by sandwern

[silkie 2]

@sandwern: I bet if you set it to AHCI mode you'd be OK reading disks on the controller within ESXi and create DS's. 1 per disk. The S100i is software raid anyway so you're not losing much in reality. OSes like FreeNAS would prefer the direct access to the disks. If you have time a test with a screen grab would be ace! I'd love to see the BIOS settings for AHCI mode and the disks listed in ESXi should you be able to test that.

 

I'm aiming for a vSAN setup. again AHCI is fine (As ESXi will raid what it needs) but what is important is the controller's queue depth in AHCI mode right now or S100i mode should we get an ESXi driver for it.

 

I'd be dead interested to see the reported queue depth. This link explains how: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?s=queue+depth

 

For example in my screen shot you can see my HP220 HBA in my gen 8 has a suspiciously large queue depth. for vsan we need 256 or more!

[sandwern 6]

Quote

 I bet if you set it to AHCI mode you'd be OK reading disks on the controller within ESXi and create DS's. 

 

It works that way right now, in AHCI mode without any RAID. Also i tried LSI 9271-4i, but for now dropped this idea just because of overheat:

 

Quote

I'd be dead interested to see the reported queue depth. This link explains how: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/?s=queue+dept

 

No problems for me to test this:

 

Quote

If you have time a test with a screen grab would be ace! I'd love to see the BIOS settings for AHCI mode and the disks listed in ESXi should you be able to test that.

 

Ok, let's check some screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by sandwern

[silkie 2]

@sandwern: Thanks buddy! I'll order mine tomorrow. Appreciate your help.