Hello,
I am considering purchasing a T420 for my home office. I will be running VMware ESXi on this server, and I'd like to give one virtual machine direct access to a hard drive controller. I'd like to have two PERC H310 controllers in there. One would be used by the ESXi host to hold the VM datastore, and the other would be passed-through using VT-d to the VM.
The first question is, can I physically have two PERC H310 controllers installed at the same time? I'm guessing the answer is yes, but there are always weird compatibility issues you don't discover until it's too late. For example, this eBay auction selling a PERC H310 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/PERC-H310-Controller-RAID-Dell-T3600-/161014153078?pt=US_Server_Disk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item257d30ff76) shows a red/black cable. I assume that is for the chassis hard drive activity light, not something essential that would conflict with another card.
My second question is how to connect both of those controllers to the 8 drive backplane. According to page 67 of the T420 Owner's Manual (ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-t420_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf), the 8 drive backplane has a SAS A and a SAS B connector, mapping to the two connectors that come from the cable connected to the PERC H310. If I install a second PERC H310, can I plug one connector from the first controller into SAS A, and one connector from the second controller into SAS B on the backplane? I would assume that 4 of the bays would be for one controller, and 4 for the other.
Is this configuration possible? Thanks!