Need Controller Recommendation for ESXi

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hey all,

For my home ESXi 5.1 box, I need a recommendation for a controller.

I am stuck with an external Drobo S storage unit I bought a while back, and I am trying to get it to work with my Ubuntu Linux Guest on ESXi 5.1

The storage unit supports three different connection options:

1.) USB 2.0
2.) FireWire 800 (1394b?, I don't know much about FireWire)
3.) eSATA (must support port multiplier)

Currently, the only way I am getting it to work is by forwarding local USB to the guest but it is VERY slow. (For some reason I'm only getting between 2 and 5 MB/s)

I bought one of the eSATA controllers that Drobo recommends for use with this product (StarTech PEXESATA2, Silicon Image 3132 based), and while it lists Windows and Linux compatibility and installs the right drivers in both guests when Direct I/O forwarded to them, it refuses to detect the presence of the drive. (It detects it when either OS is running natively on the same hardware though)

This leaves me with a few options:
1.) Find another eSATA controller that is known to support PMP when forwarded to Linux through ESXi. (not much documentation exists here).
2.) Buy a FireWire 800 controller known to work in Linux when forwarded through ESXi
3.) Buy a USB 2.0 controller known to work in Linux after being forwarded through ESXi.
4.) Continue using ESXi's really slow USB forwarding.

Right now I'm leaning towards option #2.

FireWire used to be a mess on Linux, but from what I'm googling lately, it appears to be pretty stable now, and is faster than USB2 (which in practice tends to only get 26MB/s for disk transfers)

I've had 2 years of issues with getting PMP to work properly over eSATA in Linux, and I'm thinking trying something else (like firewire) may be a good idea.

So, with that really long introduction:

Does anyone know of a FireWire 800 controller that will work properly in a Linux Guest after being Direct I/O forwarded from an ESXi 5.1 host?

Thanks,
Matt