If I would like to keep my ESXi (5.5 most likely) and vmstore on a system mirror (e.g., 2x SSDs), what is my best controller option for
a) at a minimum 2x6Gb sata ports (with matching bandwidth for PCIe).
b) hardware RAID 1 capability (with ESXi support)
c) bonus question: are there any such RAID controllers with TRIM support (instead of in Windows)?
And why is something as simple as a system mirror not available through something like an ICH Intel setup? I would even take a warm or cold automated backup of my system drive (nightly dd of the system/vms, but then the vms would need to be snapshotted and the snapshots managed for the backup)
When looking for system mirror capabilities my options were:
a) fakeraid not possible (only works with matching component under high level OS) or from external box (which then has most likely bandwidth issues and increases power consumption in a small setup).
b) a hardware raid controller (typically minimum of 4 ports).
c) even an m1015 used would cost me now ~130 Euros here off EBay and it is another 10W power budget for just not much functionality.
d) I could break tbe system down further: thumbdrive (still copy ESXi by hand) and one vm (windows) that then runs passthrough for fakeraid then served out as datastore (but that appears overly complex for what is needed).
Did anybody succeed by any chance pulling a fakeraid under ESXi? What do people typically run as their system/ESXi and first vm drive setup, especially with respect to SSDs?
What would be my optimal choice: stability/ESXi support/price/power consumption?
Thanks.