LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i SG in ESXi 5 U1

[HalfJawElite]

Hi all,

I'm looking on getting a question answered regarding this RAID controller card: LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i SG.

The question I have is do I need to add the drivers into the ESXi iso in order for the hypervisor to allow for I/O passthrough, or are the drivers just for ESXi to use for its own storage?

I found these links for the card online (and some are from VMware's support website) but I'm a little confused by what their talking about.
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/397954
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/336077
http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3601

Do I need to install drivers for the card in order for me to use it for I/O passthrough?

 

[wkearney99]

ESXi has got to be able to see the card in order to be able to pass it through. I've got an IBM M1015 (which is based on the same setup as the 9240, iirc). It worked right out of the box. I've since re-flashed it with the 'IT' mode rom so openindiana would recognize it straight away (passed through as a PCI device).

 

[dandragonrage]

Yeah, I use an M1015 flashed with 9240 firmware and ESXi 5.0 U1 with VMDirectPath. I did not need to install any drivers for ESXi. I did need to install the Solaris driver from LSI's website to use the card with Illumian. The 921x cards are supported out of the box in more OS than the 9240. But installing the driver was easy anyway.