ESXi create datastore from on board raid?

Hardware Enterprise Gear
1

Can you create a datastore in ESXi from onboard raid array?

I am trying to create a data store from 2 SSDs in raid 1 created from the onboarding chipset. But the ESXi seems only see the drives themselves instead of the raid array.

Did I missing something here or it just not possible?

ESXi 6.7 u2
Suppermicro X8DT3

2

Unsure if it’s been done already, but try after these have been finished:

  • Go into BIOS and set SATA ports from AHCI to RAID
  • Boot into RAID configurator utility and setup your RAID 1 array with the SSDs and make sure that the virtual disk shows up properly
  • Double check your work by loading a Live USB/ISO with GParted and verify that it can only see the virtual drive and not both physical drives
3

I already build the raid array use both Intel and adaptek. ESXi can only see the the 2 drives, but not the array.

4

Have you got the RAID setup on the SATA or SAS ports?

The SATA RAID is well, for lack of better words. Shit. On the SATA it also requires a driver on the Host OS.
ESXi (although there is a Linux driver for this board) does not support this.

Move the disks to the SAS controller and setup your RAID there.

5

I figured out. ESXi only see hardware raid.

6

Depends on the controller.

if you’re talking about intel RST garbage, that’s not really a proper raid controller.

Check the VMware hardware compatibility list.