SATA hotplug suggestion

[stes]

Two suggestions related to the "SATA hotplug" feature where you can storageattach disks to a SATA controller:

1) document the feature in the UserManual (e.g. after 9.4 CPU Hot-Plugging add a chapter 9.5 SATA Hot-Plugging)

For example, if I set the SATA controller "port count" to 4, I've noticed on a Solaris guest system that I get

cfgadm -al sata0
Ap_Id                          Type         Receptacle   Occupant     Condition
sata0/0::dsk/c1t0d0            disk         connected    configured   ok
sata0/1                        sata-port    empty        unconfigured ok
sata0/2                        sata-port    empty        unconfigured ok
sata0/3                        sata-port    empty        unconfigured ok

The maximum port count seems to be 30. The UserManual could document this. Maybe it does by I didn't see it.

2) I wonder whether "online" changing the host controller is possible

For example, if "port count" is set to 2 and the guest runs, I cannot change the "port count" apparently (the option is greyed out at least on my version / platform of VirtualBox).

It would be nice to be able to online increase 2 to say, 4 or 8, and then without reboot being able to reset the controller in the guest (from the guest operating system). Maybe that's not realistic, but just a suggestion ...

[socratis]

The maximum port count seems to be 30. The UserManual could document this. Maybe it does by I didn't see it.

Ch. 3.7 Storage Settings:

IDE controllers have four slots which have traditionally been called primary master, primary slave, secondary master, and secondary slave. By contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30 slots for attaching virtual devices.

Ch. 5.1 Hard Disk Controllers: IDE, SATA (AHCI), SCSI, SAS, USB MSD, NVMe:

Like a real SATA controller, Oracle VM VirtualBox’s virtual SATA controller operates faster and also consumes fewer CPU resources than the virtual IDE controller. Also, this enables you to connect up to 30 virtual hard disks to one machine instead of just three, when compared to the Oracle VM VirtualBox IDE controller with a DVD drive attached.

Ch. 8.20 VBoxManage storagectl:

VBoxManage storagectl [--portcount <1-30>]

I just used the searchable manual (in PDF format) that comes with every VirtualBox installation, and searched for "30"...

[stes]

I agree that the number of "Port Count" may be documented, but the main suggestion here is to document the 'SATA hotplug' feature.

It does not have to be much : a simple section in the style of "CPU Hotplug" is sufficient.

The SATA hotplug is a nice feature which seems to merit a small section in the User Manual .

[socratis]

I wasn't replying to your "SATA hotplug suggestion".
I was replying to the fact that you missed/didn't see the "30 port" documentation.