VMware ESXi 5.1 on ASRock Z77 Pro4-M

I have sucefully installed and running ESXi on this MB -> http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Pro4-M/?cat=Specifications

Successfully passthrough my PCIe card....

• ServeRAID-BR10i
  
• Adaptec 1430SA
  
• 2 internal SATA3 6.0 Gb/s ASMedia ASM1061  connectors
  

Thanks to all who contribute ESXi knowledge and experience in this forum.

I do have two things I think about how this will work in ESXi, an that is..

• UPS
  
• Sleep (S3) and Wake on Lan (WOL)
  

On my stock unraid I always use sleep (S3) and WOL ( sending magic packages)

So my questions to you experts is

[*]How will a UPS work when this is added to my ESXi server ?  I like to secure the ESXi server and handle all my VM to safely shutdown or suspend  if an case of emergency. How shall a USB be configured on a ESXi server?

[*]S3 script, when the script sleep my ESXi unraid VM, can I wake it up with magic packeges? This is done to the MAC address, but that is now belong to my ESXi server

100% All Solid Capacitor Design
Digi Power Design
Supports Dual Channel DDR3 2800+(OC)
1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot, Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, CrossFireX™
PCIE Gigabit LAN
Supports Intel® HD Graphics with Built-in Visuals
Multi VGA Output options : D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI
Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™
Supports ASRock XFast RAM, XFast LAN, XFast USB, OMG, Internet Flash, No-K OC, On/Off Play, Dehumidifier, UEFI System Browser
Supports Intel® Smart Connect, Intel® Rapid Start, Lucid Virtu Universal MVP
Free Bundle : CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite

More info coming soon.....

Regarding #1, unfortunately ESXi requires a Serial cable for the host to talk to the UPS device, and the motherboard you bought doesn't have a serial port.

What I've done is created a small ubuntu server VM that gets the usb connection for the UPS passed through to it.  The OS runs apcupsd.  and the disk is non-persistent (this is important).

What happens when the power goes out:

1.  Ubuntu apcupsd box notices power failure.

2-  unRAID VM (also running apcupsd) notices this failure, waits 20 seconds and initiates a power down

3.  Ubuntu apcupsd executes a power down script on ESXi via ssh

4.  ESXi box begins powering off all but the ubuntu VM

5.  Ubuntu apcupsd waits 5 minutes for power down, and then a signal is sent to turn the UPS off (to allow for ESXi to boot back up when the power is restored)

The reason for having the ubuntu VM non-persistent is that it's not going to be cleanly shut down in the event of a power failure. 

I also have a backup of my ESXi (it's installed on a thumb drive) as it's also not being cleanly shut down.  I've tested it and it works, and has successfully survived a few power outages.

I may look into using a raspberry pi for this instead, as that won't add much power utilization, and I can cleanly shut ESXi down, now that I think about it.

there are special mini distro linux for EXSi only for UPS support

Im use CyberPOwer UPS with default offer ready VMka for UPS support  under EXSi - this even have WebGUI for managing UPS

Another alternative if you have a Windows VM on the ESXi server anyway is in my sig below - click the apcupsd on ESXi link.

Re: magic packet/WOL, we have got no further than the other discussion that you were a part of.  You need a licensed, paid version to access these features.  As per post http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26639.msg235371#msg235371