I am trying to build up an low cost ESX 4 server using existing hardware. I have been successful at fully implementing the ESX 4 server on my machine and now that I have proven that the concept works, I purchased two Western Digital 1 TB SATA II drives to use in a Mirroring RAID configuration to store all of my virtual machines on. I have a separate SATA or IDE drive that I can install ESX on for booting if it is not possible on the mirrored array.
I assumed that since my MB had RAID support on it, that it would work for this setup. It is an nForce 4 Ultra board, but I now know that the RAID implemented on this is software and is not supported and will not work with ESX.
I now need to find a compatible hardware RAID controller card that I can use with my MB and operate a mirrored array using PCI Express x1. I also have a PCI slot, but would prefer to take advantage of the 3 GB/s speed capable on the x1 slot.
I am looking for a lower cost solution that can be had on Newegg or Ebay for ~$200 and is PCI x1 compatible. I don't need crazy high performance because thus far, I have plenty of speed for what I am looking to do. I have also searched the HCL, but am not confident that the controllers listed will provide the support I need for the SATA drives and not sure if any SAS connector can be converted to SATA or not. I would prefer if someone could provide me the make and model of a PCI x1 RAID controller that is known to work with ESX 4.