First Time Esxi User Need Some Input

[FantaXP7]

Hello all,

First post here. Let me go over the hardware:

Intel i5 2400
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 (more on this soon)
16 gb ram (forget exact off the top of my head)
IBM M1015
8x 2TB Samsung hard drives
16 gb SSD for Esxi
2x 500 gb hard drives.

What I am trying to accomplish with Exsi:

1. Have a VM for a ZFS program for all my media. Not sure which is best? I hear Nexentastor is supposed to be good and Freenas. I also hear to use whatever uses the latest build of ZFS...What I'd like to do is pass through the IBM M1015's which I have already flashed with the 9211 firmware.

2. A Windows VM for a centralized XBMC database, Metabrowser, and hopefully get my Ceton tuner card to work.

So where I need help, I have Esxi up and running on the SSD. Now for the virtual machines, should I use the two 500 gb drives and run a Raid 1 from the motherboard?

With my motherboard, I was a bit pissed off...I saw the Intel VT-D enabled in the bios but not supported in Exsi...As a desperation attempt I installed Windows on a spare hard drive and updated the bios, held my breath...and viola! Exsi now says I/O supported! I was so scared after coming here and reading some stories with the P67 chipest.

Anyways, any input is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[dashpuppy]

Hello all,

First post here. Let me go over the hardware:

Intel i5 2400
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 (more on this soon)
16 gb ram (forget exact off the top of my head)
IBM M1015
8x 2TB Samsung hard drives
16 gb SSD for Esxi
2x 500 gb hard drives.

What I am trying to accomplish with Exsi:

1. Have a VM for a ZFS program for all my media. Not sure which is best? I hear Nexentastor is supposed to be good and Freenas. I also hear to use whatever uses the latest build of ZFS...What I'd like to do is pass through the IBM M1015's which I have already flashed with the 9211 firmware.

2. A Windows VM for a centralized XBMC database, Metabrowser, and hopefully get my Ceton tuner card to work.

So where I need help, I have Esxi up and running on the SSD. Now for the virtual machines, should I use the two 500 gb drives and run a Raid 1 from the motherboard?

With my motherboard, I was a bit pissed off...I saw the Intel VT-D enabled in the bios but not supported in Exsi...As a desperation attempt I installed Windows on a spare hard drive and updated the bios, held my breath...and viola! Exsi now says I/O supported! I was so scared after coming here and reading some stories with the P67 chipest.


.

Thanks

It's Esxi not Exsi..

Does ur motherboard use software raid ? Ie fake raid ?
Anyways, any input is much appreciated

 

[FantaXP7]

It's Esxi not Exsi..

Does ur motherboard use software raid ? Ie fake raid ?
Anyways, any input is much appreciated

Yea I have been stupidly misspelling that...whoops.

Yes it does have fake raid. I know it's supposed to be crap, but I am just a bit confused on how to configure the space for my VMs.

Thanks

 

[dashpuppy]

Esxi and others, won't work with fake raid. It hates it. Instead it wil just see 2 500 gig hdd's..

 

[FantaXP7]

Esxi and others, won't work with fake raid. It hates it. Instead it wil just see 2 500 gig hdd's..

Thanks again,

Ok, so scratch that idea. I'll figure something else out to protect that data.

Any other thoughts on the setup?

 

[Niko084]

I have successfully used this exact board for a few Esxi servers running Server '03 and Server '08, they handle it very well.

As far as your setup, sounds like you are on the right track, find a compatible raid card, they have quite the list worry not.

If you need any help feel free to shoot me a PM, I'm just starting to get my feet wet with Esxi but I now have 4 servers in place at businesses that are up and running smoothly. I have dealt with a few oddball issues as well.