looking to build a hardware RAID-5 using SATA disks…
this will be exposed to a Hypervisor: VMware ESX or Xen
but none of the below seem to have driver support on Linux / ESX except AMD SP5100 which is only on server mainboards
they all support IDE mode / AHCI mode / RAID mode
AMD southbridge chipsets:
SB780
SB880
SP5100 – server
Intel Rapid storage technology:
Intel® PCH SATA RAID/AHCI
Intel® ICH10R/DO SATA RAID/AHCI
Intel® ICH9M-E SATA AHCI/RAID
what options exist apart from buying a dedicated RAID card PCIx – LSI chipset?
Best Answer
Onboard RAID tends to be either 'driver-assisted' or just plain awful - ESX/ESXi has a very small HCL and therefore generally shuns low-end cheapo mobo RAID.
That said if you look on that HCL site you will find that Intel's S55xxxx-series mobos are supported by ESX/ESXi 4.1U1 and have hardware RAID built in.