DELL R210 II + HW RAID 5

And I cannot use an H800?

The S100 and S300 controllers are the only "validated" RAID controllers for the R210 II that will do RAID 5.  They are Windows only, do not support 6Gbps, do not support SAS, and will not support tape drives.  The S100 and S300 are software RAID, so do not expect much for performance from them.

Your only option is an H200 - it does NOT do RAID 5 (RAID 0,1,10), but is 6Gbps, supports SAS, and supports non-RAID/passthrough, so you should be able to attach your tape drive.  If you MUST do RAID 5, then you would need to do software RAID (OS managed).

The H800 is for EXTERNAL storage enclosures only ... not for internal storage.

The H310 is not supported on the R210 II.  It may work, but it is not supported.

Actually the H800 doesnt support raid either, would the H310 work?

Then you can attach your SATA disks to the onboard SATA ports in non-RAID mode and run RAID 5 in the OS, then use the PCIe slot for an external controller (SAS 6Gbps HBA) for the SAS tape drive.  Downside:  no write cache, no hardware RAID.

None.

You will not find a single controller that does all that you need (RAID 5, passthrough, 6Gbps, SAS, cache) ... you will need to make a compromise on something.  I don't know if the R210 II has the slots and resources to take two cards, but that is probably your only solution - one card for the internal storage and one for the tape drive (is this tape drive going to be internal or external)?

Okay what controller has cache and provides 6GB internal sas and also pass thru?

The H710 is the best internal controller for Dell servers, but it would not support a tape drive (supports RAID only - no passthrough/JBOD), but is 6Gbps.  The R210 II may lack the resources required to support such a card.

The R210 II only has a single PCI slot. The tape drive is external.

Okay hopefully someone else has done this and can confirm if it works. An H710 would be better since it has battery backed cache. I normally use HP kit so am not 100% familiar with the different models.

I use Dell SAS6/IR SATA Raid Controllers P/N 0JW063 controllers

no 2TB limit!

I can get them off ebay for less than 10 dollars each and they work perfectly and are supported by VMware.  You do have to buy the cable adapters for them.  Also dirt cheep.

Nothing like a little Dell r210 II with 16g Ram running raid and VMware.

Bammmm!

no 2TB limit!

Not for a VD, but PD's cannot be larger than 2TB in RAID mode.

He was also looking for a performance card with battery-backed write cache, which the SAS 6 does not do.