ESXI server for small office with SSD RAID1

[DDim]

Hello,

I plan to build a server for a small office whith 2 SSD disk in RAID1 volume.

Can I buy a modern motherboard  with two  M.2 connectors on board and run esxi with RAID1 volume?

Or buy cheap RAID controller with M2 NVME connectors, supported by ESXI?

Please advise inexpensive SSD RAID1 configuration.

Best Ragards,

  Dmitry.

[daphnissov]

Always stick to the HCL for all hardware, including servers. If you want to roll your own, that's fine, but stick to the HCL.

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

[DDim]

I have old LSI9260 controller present in HCL.

But I'm not sure how it works with modern SSD.

Maybe someone had experience?

[shane1973]

I think you would be fine using the SATA bus for just a RAID 1 of 2 SSD drives. That should give you plenty of throughput (6 Gb/s) for a small environment without having to worry about NVMe compatibility. Just my 2 cents.

[DDim]

I think this is the best solution now, because only software small NVMe RAID controllers on the market I see.

But I'm not shure - is my LSI 9260 work good with SATA SSD and esxi 6.7?

[shane1973]

From Google results, it looks like that is probably a SAS controller, not SATA

[shane1973]

Well, now I see some cards say they are SAS/SATA and some just say SAS. I'd find the model number of your particular card and google it.