October 25, 201510 yr Author Is there any specific advantage to using it over doing onboard RAID1 other than ease of setup? i think it depends on your board and sata port/controller count. if your board have only one sata controller, and you have esxi vmfs drives on it too.. i haven't tested that cos my board have only 6 sata ports on one controller.. if you have one controller, can you use some ports for raid, and some ports for ACHI? i think no, but may be i'm wrong? Good call. Let me research my board.
October 25, 201510 yr Author Ok, just picked up one of those Enermax enclosures. I think that will be perfect for what I need. Anything to creating the RDM drive or it's pretty str8 forward?
October 25, 201510 yr Ok, just picked up one of those Enermax enclosures. I think that will be perfect for what I need. Anything to creating the RDM drive or it's pretty str8 forward? pure command-line see here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1017530 and remember to add custom option to VM advanced parameters as i wrote already..
October 25, 201510 yr Author Ok, just picked up one of those Enermax enclosures. I think that will be perfect for what I need. Anything to creating the RDM drive or it's pretty str8 forward? pure command-line see here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1017530 and remember to add custom option to VM advanced parameters as i wrote already.. Sweet. Thanks for all the info.
October 25, 201510 yr Author Sweet. Thanks for all the info. ok, please post your test results then.. Will do. I just need to backup my cache data now .
October 26, 201510 yr With ESXi you will likely only be able to use a Drive connected to a MB port if you RDM the drive to the VM. Most MB controllers on newer MBs are only visible to ESXi as a single controller and you cannot pass it through to a VM because then ESXi would loose its data store drive. RDM the drive? I see you got the answer to this and better info then I could give you.
October 31, 201510 yr Author Actually I just moved to this case yesterday and I just remembered there is one internal spot for a 3.5" HDD under the PSU. http://www.istarusa.com/istarusa/products.php?model=D-3100HB#.Viz76p_D9nE How exactly does that RAID ensure work in terms of configuring it for RAID1 to show up in my UnRAID VM? My Enermax 3203 have a small mode switch on the back side. you just switch it before power up, and then it will initialize when power up. and there is a Windows tool also for configuration.. i have not tried this utility cos i have no baremetal windows machine for testing.. when this raid drive shows up in esxi, then you make RDM, and add it to unRAID VM. Hey uldise, how did you get your enermax to show up in ESXi? I installed my two SSD's into it (which previous had data on them) and moved the switch on it to RAID1 but after booting my server it doesn't show up as a device under storage. Is there some type of initialization I need to do with it before ESXi boots? EDIT: Nvmd, it turned out one of my SSD's wasn't actually connecting to one of the internal SATA ports on the Enermax. Re-seated and now it's being detected by ESXi. EDIT #2: Ok I'm having trouble creating the RDM. When I run the following command I get a "missing required argument" error. vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____H2FW_RAID1_______________________________C7Z2F7TI816OWYJW62CV/vmfs/volumes/VM_Datastore/RDMs/localrdm1.vmdk
November 1, 201510 yr EDIT #2: Ok I'm having trouble creating the RDM. When I run the following command I get a "missing required argument" error. vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____H2FW_RAID1_______________________________C7Z2F7TI816OWYJW62CV/vmfs/volumes/VM_Datastore/RDMs/localrdm1.vmdk looks like you have a typo a space in between? vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____H2FW_RAID1_______________________________C7Z2F7TI816OWYJW62CV /vmfs/volumes/VM_Datastore/RDMs/localrdm1.vmdk
November 1, 201510 yr There is, of course, another alternative => replace the 8-port card with a 16 or 24 port card. e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142
November 1, 201510 yr Author EDIT #2: Ok I'm having trouble creating the RDM. When I run the following command I get a "missing required argument" error. vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____H2FW_RAID1_______________________________C7Z2F7TI816OWYJW62CV/vmfs/volumes/VM_Datastore/RDMs/localrdm1.vmdk looks like you have a typo a space in between? vmkfstools -z /vmfs/devices/disks/t10.ATA_____H2FW_RAID1_______________________________C7Z2F7TI816OWYJW62CV /vmfs/volumes/VM_Datastore/RDMs/localrdm1.vmdk Ah you're right. But I got it working anyway through this method. There is, of course, another alternative => replace the 8-port card with a 16 or 24 port card. e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142 Thanks gary but I was hoping not to spend that much more money. The $50 Enermax 2-in-1 seems to be working well for me.
November 1, 201510 yr Ah you're right. But I got it working anyway through this method. Yes, i have seen this guide before.. i just hope you created a physical RDM.. and if everything is working now, then please post your testing/usage results with unRAID
November 1, 201510 yr Author Ah you're right. But I got it working anyway through this method. Yes, i have seen this guide before.. i just hope you created a physical RDM.. and if everything is working now, then please post your testing/usage results with unRAID How would I discern the difference between a physical and virtual RDM?
November 1, 201510 yr How would I discern the difference between a physical and virtual RDM? google for it a quick find from me, for example here: http://serverfault.com/a/156050 i always use physical, so no experience with virtual ones..
November 1, 201510 yr Author How would I discern the difference between a physical and virtual RDM? google for it a quick find from me, for example here: http://serverfault.com/a/156050 i always use physical, so no experience with virtual ones.. I take it this is a virtual one?
November 1, 201510 yr I take it this is a virtual one? dont know.. if you create with -z option from command-line, then you create physical RDM. if you are not sure, you can always recreate it. EDIT: found it - when you add it to VM, then you can see it Compatibility mode.
November 2, 201510 yr Author I take it this is a virtual one? dont know.. if you create with -z option from command-line, then you create physical RDM. if you are not sure, you can always recreate it. EDIT: found it - when you add it to VM, then you can see it Compatibility mode. Thanks! Looks like I'm all set.
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