ESXi on C220-M5SX with disk mirroring

[j.a.m.e.s]

Dear All,

I need to install ESXi (v6.7U3 or above) with RAID 1 or 5 or 6. I have purchased the following components:

• UCSC-C220-M5SX
• UCSC-SAS-M5 [Cisco 12G Modular SAS HBA]
• 5x UCS-SD400G123X-EP [SAS Solid State Disks]

After checking in CIMC and loading the SCU, but I can't get RAID setup and CIMC shows the disks in JBOD mode.

It's difficult to find the relevant documentation, but I now suspect UCSC-SAS-M5 is the so called "embedded software raid" or "fake raid" and that this won't work with ESXi. There is also some similar old discussion about this here.

Could someone confirm the above for me please? Assuming I need to buy a RAID card, could the UCSC-RAID-M5 be retro-fitted and do I also need to purchase a super-cap and connecting cable?

Many thanks for any insight.

James.

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

Checking https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c220m5-sff-specsheet.pdf?referring_site=RE&pos=5&page=http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-ra...

It appears you want UCSC-RAID-M5, which comes with cache and Supercap.

JBOD only setups are only useful for VSAN, Hyperflex, and other software defined storage specific setups.

Kirk...

[j.a.m.e.s]

Thanks very much Kirk. Would you also mind commenting on whether I might need to buy a separate cable (to connect the supercap -> raid controller) or is this also included or embedded somehow in the chassis?

[j.a.m.e.s]

In case it helps, I have attached a photo of the server internals and I think the existing UCSC-SAS-M5 is visible.

[j.a.m.e.s]

Posting another photo of the UCSC-SAS-M5 software-raid/fake-raid controller with the cover removed.

This is what I need to swap out for a UCSC-RAID-M5.

[j.a.m.e.s]

After speaking with our Cisco SE, the suggestion is to order the following parts:

* UCSC-RAID-M5=
* UCSC-SCAP-M5=
* CBL-SC-MR12GM52=

I will post back at some point and let you know if these do the job or if I end up with multiple cables and super-caps.

[j.a.m.e.s]

It turns out that to upgrade from SAS to RAID I only needed to order:

* UCSC-RAID-M5=

This arrived with battery and cable and slots easily into the existing mRAID riser. Once I'd installed, I applied the latest HUU (apparently this is required even if there is no FW to update) and then created a virtual RAID50 drive via the CIMC.

P.S: If you didn't have an SAS card previously, I'm not sure whether you would need to order to mRAID riser, but I have attached a photo of this just in case it helps someone in the future.

P.P.S: I think if you had no card at all the part code which includes the riser is: UCSC-MRAID1GB-KIT