Question 1

ECC memory?

Accepted Answer

Yes, this is a server class computer.

Question 2

Does the Smart Array B120i support Raid 5?  Is this controller a true hardware controller or is it a software controller just for Windows?  I am interested in running ESXi - and I assume that I would need to download an HP VMWare iso in order for it to run properly.  Hard to tell with the limited info.

Accepted Answer

Looks to me like a hardware raid controller the HP docs for the B120i say both Linux and VMware are supported. It also states the driver is available from HP for both these OS's.

Question 3

does this server contain the Dynamic Smart Array B120i controller, SATA, supports RAID 0/1/10?

Accepted Answer

From reading the HP specs on the B120i, it supports 2 ports @ 6GB/s and the rest @3GB/s. That should be adequate as only an SSD can saturate a 3GB/s port. Only RAID 0 & 1 are supported unless you buy the add-on 512MB cache (which isn't exactly cheap), in which case you can then do hardware Raid 5. But why bother with hardware raid at all when there is ZFS? Even if you're running ESXI, you could do hardware passthrough to a VM and let it manage your disk drives via ZFS. OpenIndiana, FreeBSD, and Linux can all do ZFS, heck even MAC OS X can.

Questions & Answers