I've been reading a lot here about the need to flash one's disk controller with IT firmware so it does not behave like a RAID controller but rather like a straight host adapter for the drives.

I now have an X10SL7-F mobo with a built-in LSI 8x SAS controller and I even downloaded the firmware to do the flashing.

BUT - the controller (now in IR mode, as acquired) seems to work well, it presents the disks as standalone as expected, and I'm not sure whether I need to go ahead and flash it.

 

So the question to the controller experts here is - do I lose anything by leaving it as IR? Performance, other issues? Do I still want to flash this controller to IT?

 

Thanks for any insight.

If it's working now, you don't need to flash it.  Flashing won't alter the performance.  However (and one of the ESXi guys needs to confirm this),  I believe you need to flash it if you're planning to use this with ESXi and pass the controller through to the VM.

 

If it's working now, you don't need to flash it.  Flashing won't alter the performance.  However (and one of the ESXi guys needs to confirm this),  I believe you need to flash it if you're planning to use this with ESXi and pass the controller through to the VM.

 

Thanks! and that's a very good point - I do intend to virtualize this construct and put a hypervisor on top (rather than under, as I do now with the Virtualbox plugin).

 

So ESXi Guys, - is flashing the controller with IT firmware a precondition to passing it down to a VM?

Well why don't you try it?

Esxi can be run from usb stick.

Just get a 16gb stick for esxi.

Set it up and see if it works.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

 

 

So ESXi Guys, - is flashing the controller with IT firmware a precondition to passing it down to a VM?

 

No, it is not required for passthrough.

 

However, since the card is supported by ESXi as a datastore, be cautious when installing.

You *must* remove all unRAID disks as ESXi will just *silently* reformat them to form a datastore upon install.