I have an ASRock H97M Pro4 (micro ATX).
I run ESXi 5.5u2 on it. Vt-d is supported, so components can be passed through to client vms. The drivers for the onboard network adapter (Intel I218-V) and SATA controller (Intel H97 PCH) must be added to the ESXi install ISO, otherwise they are not available. I added (customised) packages net-e1000e and sata-xahci to the ESXi ISO.
After installing ESXi 5.5u2 both the network adapter and the SATA controller are supported. The network adapter is also available for passthrough to a client vm. The SATA controller is NOT in the list of candidates, available for passthrough. I'd like to install a VM, that functions as a NAS. But because my data harddisc cannot be passed through, I'm having doubts about the performance.
Does anyone have an idea how to solve this (other than adding a PCI SATA controller card)?