ESX4i + expresscard to esata

Hi,

I was thinking of setting up a VM training environment without modifying/using the built in hard drive.

I have a lenovo T500, with Core 2 duo 3GHz CPU and 3GB of ram.

Currently, I installed an ESX4i OS on usb stick and can boot to it OK. What I need now is some storage.

One way to achieve this is to remove the hard drive and put a new one dedicated for ESXi storage in it. I don't have a spare drive, and would prefer not to do this.

What I was considering is to purchase an expresscard with esata interface and attach an external drive to it through that. I thought I'd ask if anyone has tried this, and/or sees this as a poor option.

Regards,
Martin

 

It'll probably work if the storage chipset is listed under VMware's hardware compatibility list. You might also google search 'esxi' and the chipset to see it if has undocumented support or a 3rd party driver.
For example, I just checked Newegg and there are a few eSATA expresscards using the Silicon Image 3132 chipset, which is incompatible with ESXi out of the box, but a 3rd party driver is available here: http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2096.

 

I gave it a go using a jmicron based card. It registers the controller in the VSphere Client configuration tab as JMicron 20360/20363 AHCI controller, however no disks are listed under it. Only a vmbhba36 with no disks associated with it.

Under the built in controller (ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI controller) it lists the main hard drive and dvd drive.

I lack experience at this, so I'm not sure where to go from here. The drive is in a NexStar 3 caddy (attached via esata card). The power light has lit up, and it hasa 500GB Seagate drive in it which is available when I boot into into the Windows partition.

Any more tips on this?

I'll probably have to post this in a VMWare forum. If no luck, I'll probably try and source a Silicon Image card.