I’ve read that this card should be supported in the linux kernel at versions 2.2 and above. I do not see this card in the output of ‘lspci’ on debian 12. In addition, I am not able to get ESXi to recognize the card. My understanding is that it is not on the VMware HCL so that it doesn’t work may be expected.
What should I expect on ESXi and linux support for this card?
Hi there @jeffbrl and thanks for reaching out via our forums. The PEXESATA1 does not have ESXi support, and only supports LTS Linux kernels between Linux 2.6.x and 4.4.x.
Supported LTS Linux kernels: 2.6.16, 2.6.27, 2.6.32, 2.6.33, 2.6.34, 2.6.35, 3.0, 3.2, 3.4, 3.10, 3.12, 3.14, 3.16, 3.18, 4.1, and 4.4.
Please note, that you can check for supported Operating Systems via our technical specifications page for the product: 1 Port PCI Express eSATA Controller Card - SATA Controller Cards | Add-on Cards & Peripherals | StarTech.com
As you can see, ESXi is not listed and thus is unsupported. For ESXi-supported products, we will list ESXi support here. You may also notice that more modern operating systems like Windows 10 and 11 and newer Windows Server and Linux kernel versions are not listed. This is because the PEXESATA1 is EOL (End-of-life) and was EOL’d before those operating systems existed. As such, testing for newer operating systems was not done.
While Debian 12 uses Linux Kernel 6.1 which is LTS, this is newer than we have tested due to the product’s EOL status and thus it’s unsupported. The PEXESATA1 uses a Silicon Image - SiI3531 chip, so you may be able to find 3rd-party drivers out there for it, but these are not supported nor endorsed by StarTech.com.
Hopefully, this addresses what you are seeing/experiencing. Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Justin Weaver (He/Him)
Technical Lead, Customer Support Operations
Justin, great info. Your listing of the chipset for the PEXESATA1 might position me to figure out how to make the card work in recent kernel revisions. Thanks a lot.
I just noticed that the card isn’t showing up in the BIOS menu on my Dell T20 server (BIOS version A20). I’ve tried the x1 and x16 slots. Other PCIe cards work in these slots. I do not have the slots powered down in BIOS. Any idea what might be going on here?
Hi jeffbrl, if it’s not being detected at all, it’s quite possible it’s a chipset conflict/interoperability with the system. This isn’t unheard of because the Dell PowerEdge T20 uses an Intel C226 server chipset. The C-series server chipsets tend to be pickier with what they will and will not work with. An easy test for this is testing the card in another computer with a standard consumer chipset to see if it’s detected.
Thanks, Justin. The card works fine in other PCs. It’s strange that the Intel C226 chipset would be so picky about PCIe cards.
It’s not entirely on the chipset but also on the BIOs the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) provides.
