Hey All,
I have a SuperMicro X10 I am using as a server currently running Debian 8.5. I would like to convert it over to running ESXI 6.5 with a Debian VM as I would like to use the machine to run a few other VMs. I did a trial run and ran ESXI off of a USB flash drive. The issue is that my SATA (both of the onboard cards) don't support passthrough for PCI. As I understand it from reading SMART data isn't passed through and the drives won't spin down when using RDM to pass through individual drives. Is this correct? If so I would rather get a PCIe card to run the drives off of.
Right now I have a 2 x 850 SSD 256GB I was going to use for the Datastore for ESXI and then pass through my Snapraid/MergerFS (2 x Data, 1 x Parity, Seagate 6TB) and a 2 TB WD Black working drive to the Debian OS. I was going to setup the main OS as a VMDK along with VMDKs for my other OSes.
I was originally planning RDM until I read about the drives not being able to spin down and no smart when using RDM compared to passing through the PCI controller.
Any thoughts? If I need a controller any suggestions on a decent one... I'd like something with 4 to 8 ports....
-Eric
I have a SuperMicro X10 I am using as a server currently running Debian 8.5. I would like to convert it over to running ESXI 6.5 with a Debian VM as I would like to use the machine to run a few other VMs. I did a trial run and ran ESXI off of a USB flash drive. The issue is that my SATA (both of the onboard cards) don't support passthrough for PCI. As I understand it from reading SMART data isn't passed through and the drives won't spin down when using RDM to pass through individual drives. Is this correct? If so I would rather get a PCIe card to run the drives off of.
Right now I have a 2 x 850 SSD 256GB I was going to use for the Datastore for ESXI and then pass through my Snapraid/MergerFS (2 x Data, 1 x Parity, Seagate 6TB) and a 2 TB WD Black working drive to the Debian OS. I was going to setup the main OS as a VMDK along with VMDKs for my other OSes.
I was originally planning RDM until I read about the drives not being able to spin down and no smart when using RDM compared to passing through the PCI controller.
Any thoughts? If I need a controller any suggestions on a decent one... I'd like something with 4 to 8 ports....
-Eric