SM board X10SRi-F boot from SSD M2 on adapter Pci-E 3.0 X16

[Khampol]

Hello,

I plan to use on my SuperMicro MB an adapter Pci-E 3.0 X16 Expansion for a SSD M2 and use this M2 SSD as Boot Esxi.
Would be great if someone already experienced that and share if ok or not.

K.

 

[cheezehead]

Hello,

I plan to use on my SuperMicro MB an adapter Pci-E 3.0 X16 Expansion for a SSD M2 and use this M2 SSD as Boot Esxi.
Would be great if someone already experienced that and share if ok or not.

K.

Have a couple of theses boards, but haven't tried it. Just using a thumb drive in each to the onboard usb port for esxi.

 

[Khampol]

On your board you boot with a thumbdrive USB with Esxi installed on it ?

 

[Netwerkz101]

Have a couple of theses boards, but haven't tried it. Just using a thumb drive in each to the onboard usb port for esxi.

Me too!
Don't want to give up precious NVME space (or a PCIe slot) just for vSphere booting.

That said ... to the OPs question ... it should work - I too have not tried vSphere specifically.
Works for Windows though - showed up as "Windows Boot Manager (P1: PCIe SSD)".

If you are simply wanting to boot ESXI, USB drive is cheap/simple.
@OP - Or did you have another use case in mind?

 

[Khampol]

Don't want to give up precious NVME space (or a PCIe slot) just for vSphere booting.

Oh yes! Exactly )
I see this and looks it should be great on it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071S3ZY8P/ref=cm_sw_r_em_tai_c_esVsDb57PSHPK
... Should I need to use also a "raiser card"... ?

 

[Netwerkz101]

Riser Card??
If you run a 1u server ... yes.
The card mentioned is "low profile" so 2U or greater allows it to stand up in the slot.

 

[Khampol]

If you are simply wanting to boot ESXI, USB drive is cheap/simple.

Yep, this board have an internal USB jack. But using USB thumb to boot a server (plus : host in a datacenter!) is not risky ?? And what kind (brand/model) could be use for it ?

 

[Deslok]

Yep, this board have an internal USB jack. But using USB thumb to boot a server (plus : host in a datacenter!) is not risky ?? And what kind (brand/model) could be use for it ?

It's not as good as say raid 1 ssd's but it's considered acceptable for things like ESXi especially if you have multiple hosts. It is suggested to use a quality usb drive instead of a no name drive like the type handed out as promotional items, there might be a thread with specific model recommendations here. Some companies even make usb devices with SLC nand still specifically for applications like this.

 

[Khampol]

Oh... I see. As told earlier I plan to boot with a SSD M.2 and already order a Supermicro card for it.
But still, I never hear about "usb devices with SLC nand". I ll take a look what it is about.