ESXi 4.1 PATA controllers?

[danswartz]

My current build uses an intel board with one builtin PATA connector. I have ESXi installed on a laptop IDE drive, connected to that port - datastore installed there as well. My soon to be replacement system will be a supermicro x9scl-f, which has no PATA connectors. I like the laptop drive, since the SAN is on 6 3.5 inch sata drives, and I'd rather not put another SATA full-size drive in that case, so the choices are: get a laptop sata drive, plug in my low-end 4-port sata HBA and connect the laptop drive to that, or get a (cheap as possible) PATA controller that will go in a pci-e slot (not even sure there is such a beast?) I suppose I can get a 16 or 32 GB SSD and use that instead of a laptop sata drive. Any thoughts?

 

[Zerosum]

USB Flash for boot/data? SCM/SCL has a convenient USB right on the board for booting if ya want. Not the fastest for datastores, but if you're on a laptop IDE drive, then speed probably isn't a high priority.

I boot my SCM with USB boot drive fine before.

 

[jbraband]

i just did this a couple days ago. you can install ESXi 4.1 U1 to a USB stick for booting. ESXi refuses to allow the remainder of the USB stick to be used as a local datastore.

just my experience with a X9SCM-F trying to use the internal USB port as the boot media and local datastore for the SAN VM

 

[plugwash]

there certainly exist PCIe PATA cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Order=BESTMATCH&Description=pcie+pata&x=0&y=0

but i've no idea if they work with esxi.

 

[danswartz]

What I am going with: a laptop 44-pin ide to sata adapter off amazon for $20 or so.