Created Raid 1, but shows two separate hard drives

[emammadov]

Hello,

I have created Raid 1 with two 500Gb HDDs on HP Proliant ML310e Gen8. Raid controller showed it has been succesfully created and disk size is 465Gb. But when i want to install VMware ESXi 5.5, it shows two separate hard drives. What could be the problem with Raid controller? HP B120i Raid Controller.

Best regards,

Elvin Mammadov

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

You need to install the HPE ESXi image as the RAID controller requires a special driver. Without the driver the OS reports two separate disks.  This controller is software based RAID, all raid functionality is provided by the driver

[emammadov]

Thank you for your reply. I will try it at work again.
We have the same issue on the other server, HP Proliant DL120 G5. Though I have created Raid 1, either Windows Server or VMware ESXI see 2 hard drives instead of 1 hard drive. What causes this to happen?

[Jimmy Vance]

The DL120 G5 is the same answer.  The embedded SATA controller is a software RAID controller and requires a special driver that provides the RAID functionality.  To avoid this you need either an E Series or P series based Smart Array controller which are hardware RAID controllers.  Most OS's have drivers to support the hardware based controllers.

[emammadov]

From where can I download thatt special driver that supports this software Raid controller? I have also tried HPE ESXI on this server, but no result.