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I run ESXi 5.1.0 (HP version) on HP ProLiant ML310e G8 v2. There are 2 Storage Adapters:

  • Smart Array P222
  • Dynamic Smart Array B120i

Storage Adapters are visible in ESXi/Storage Adapters. Storage Adadpters

I need to use passthrough for B120i. In DirectPath I/O Configuration there are all devices except B120i. DirectPath I/O

ewwhite
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Lukáš Viktora
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2 Answers2

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Don't do it ;)

PCIe passthrough for storage adapters in ESXi isn't guaranteed to work, and is often a bad choice. I can only think of a small number of situations where it's beneficial (tape drives or something like this). But if the B120i device isn't visible in the dialog, then you don't even have the option to use it. It's probably not compatible.

Can you give a better description of why you need to use passthrough of a RAID controller to a virtual machine?

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ewwhite
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Dynamic Smart Array B120i has very pore performance on any kind of raid. The same disk array has more satisfying performance at Smart Array P222. For that reasons I’ve bought External SAS cable to be able connect internal SATA array.

External SAS cable

Now I am using internal and external SAS connector. And performance of P222 is very good at configuration 4x SAS at raid5 and 4x SATA at raid5.

Lukáš Viktora
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