We have many Linux Dell PowerEdge servers at work - all sorts of models, including the 2950 - and a) like you, we've always ordered the servers with no OS pre-installed and b) I've never even heard of the "Build and Update Utility" :-)
We're currently installing 64-bit CentOS 5 (using PXE boot to do a network install from an http source, so no CD or DVDs needed) on our PowerEdges and I tend to install the Open Manage Server Administrator after putting the OS on. Needless to say, "yum update" is one of the first commands I run once the OS is up (followed by a reboot for the inevitable kernel update that gets installed).
Generally speaking, we don't actively apply BIOS/RAID/SCSI firmware updates unless we have a problem (those updates require downtime and have a small inherent risk to them). Strangely, we'd run 5 PowerEdge 2950's for over a year for a client without a single problem and then suddenly the PERC 5/i controller on one of the 5 decided that two of the disks had a "foreign" RAID config and went into degraded mode! A combination of a firmware upgrade to the PERC 5/i and a util I downloaded (I think linked to from linux.dell.com, but downloaded from www.lsi.com) fixed the problem and brought the 2 disks back online (they were never physically faulty!). Needless to say, we patched the firmware on the other 4 boxes sharp-ish too... :-)
rkl
49 Posts
0
February 10th, 2008 12:00
We're currently installing 64-bit CentOS 5 (using PXE boot to do a network install from an http source, so no CD or DVDs needed) on our PowerEdges and I tend to install the Open Manage Server Administrator after putting the OS on. Needless to say, "yum update" is one of the first commands I run once the OS is up (followed by a reboot for the inevitable kernel update that gets installed).
Generally speaking, we don't actively apply BIOS/RAID/SCSI firmware updates unless we have a problem (those updates require downtime and have a small inherent risk to them). Strangely, we'd run 5 PowerEdge 2950's for over a year for a client without a single problem and then suddenly the PERC 5/i controller on one of the 5 decided that two of the disks had a "foreign" RAID config and went into degraded mode! A combination of a firmware upgrade to the PERC 5/i and a util I downloaded (I think linked to from linux.dell.com, but downloaded from www.lsi.com) fixed the problem and brought the 2 disks back online (they were never physically faulty!). Needless to say, we patched the firmware on the other 4 boxes sharp-ish too... :-)
patteed
51 Posts
0
February 11th, 2008 11:00
You can use the Build and Update Utility (BUU) to install both RHEL and SUSE unless your PE2950 has a
PERC6 RAID controller in it.
kbuby
3 Posts
0
February 16th, 2008 08:00
Hello,
I am new with linux and servers
why you said unless your PE2950 has a PERC RAID controller?