Can anyone recommend a good, decently priced M.2 raid controller that will work for the ASRock Rack RomeD8-2T motherboard and ESXi 7 for my new home lab server?
M.2 raid controller for ASRock Rack RomeD8-2T
- Thread starter nemomaximus
- Start date
Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
Perhaps (hopefully?) a little provocatively, I will go out on a limb and say that something like that (especially the good part) does not exist.
In my experience enterprise/server gear has settled on using risers (proprietary or OCP standard) and more or less standard PCIe cards for RAID controllers. Keep in mind that RAID controllers take a significant amount of space, fitting a good one on a m.2 card is probably going to be pretty difficult.
If you can make do with SATA and no RAID functionality, I think there are some m.2 cards with ASMedia controllers out there, but don't expect (good) RAID from them.
In my experience enterprise/server gear has settled on using risers (proprietary or OCP standard) and more or less standard PCIe cards for RAID controllers. Keep in mind that RAID controllers take a significant amount of space, fitting a good one on a m.2 card is probably going to be pretty difficult.
If you can make do with SATA and no RAID functionality, I think there are some m.2 cards with ASMedia controllers out there, but don't expect (good) RAID from them.
I ended up using Proxmox and software raid using ZFS and that works fine 
My question was probably badly worded. I was looking for a PCIe raid controller with M.2 slots.
My question was probably badly worded. I was looking for a PCIe raid controller with M.2 slots.
The closest solutions are tri-mode hbas/raidcontrollers that work with u.2/u.3. With adapters it could be possible to create a raid of nvme m.2 ssds.
Personally I would use decent m.2 ssds without raid as boot devices OR use u.2/u.3 ssds and sacrifice "precious" bays for the os
(If ou use supermicro chassis: some supermicro chassis & server have options to use u.2/u.3 ssds in the rear 2.5" drive bays)
Personally I would use decent m.2 ssds without raid as boot devices OR use u.2/u.3 ssds and sacrifice "precious" bays for the os
(If ou use supermicro chassis: some supermicro chassis & server have options to use u.2/u.3 ssds in the rear 2.5" drive bays)