Stuck on Loading OS on R210 II

Question

Hi all,

I am a tech but just not familiar with Dell servers or how to load the OS. Had a client's backup server have the drive die and so got a new drive and am just stuck trying to load it. Here are my steps:

- book to F10, Unified Server Configurator

- chose Deployment, OS Deployment

- it prompts to select driver source and I figured out that I needed to download a CD called "DELL EMC LIFECYCLE CONTROLLER OS DRIVER PACKS DVD VERSION 17.07.00" and put this on a USB

- I picked "use CD/DVD/USB" and it found the stick and then I had to put in "Repository" as the drivers are within a folder named that

- it prompted for the OS choice and I chose Win Server 2008 SP2

- it failed with an error "unable to copy driver files"

B) I then rebooted with the the Dell Windows Server 2012 Foundation" disk that I had (I did not use this at first as a previous post reply suggested that this 3 yr old server did not have the drivers for 2012)

- it came up to "deploy OS" and then it said it would reboot the system and finally it said to click to finish the installation" (there might have been prompts in between but do not think important)

- this time it failed with "Loading PBR for descriptor 1...done" but then right after "Bad PBR signature"

Questions: it seems as though the partitions on the drive are bad - is there another utility to reformat the partitions?

- am I using the right DVD for the latest drivers or is there a better pack?

- the server came with 2012 but I don't mind puting 2008 on it if it is easier - it is just supposed to be a hot backup server (which will also be a backup DC)

Thanks for any help - I am just burning up too much time for this client as I am just not familiar with Dell servers at all.

Albert Gostick

AlbertGostick · Answer

Oh, about the raid - when I had the old drive running, I installed Open Manage (I think - a few weeks ago) and that did not report raid anything - it definitely was not in a raid setup i.e. only 1 drive and it did not seem that I could enable raid (or I would have tried setting it to 1 to see if I could mirror the drive and then see if the new drive could run without errors).

I also looked in the bios setup - I couldn't find a place to say what the controller was or what raid levels it was capable of. Should I be able to see this from the bios screens?

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Albert Gostick,

We would need additional information, such as if there is a raid virtual disk configured, the raid controller install (if any) as well as the status of the Virtual Disk. I ask as if the drive that failed is in a raid array, which is redundant, then there may be no need to reinstall. If the drive wasn't part of a Virtual Disk, or was part of a raid 0, then the issue looks to be that the proper driver is needed to load. As the 2012 Foundation edition does seem to be supported. For the driver the file you stated is to update the Lifecycle Controller with the newer drivers. Not to point to to get the latest driver. If you confirm the raid controller installed in the server I can get the driver needed, or you need to run the update you have to update the Lifecycle Controllers drivers.

Let me know.

AlbertGostick · Answer

Hi Chris,

Thanks. I am not at this server but let me ask a quick question - can I guess that the lifecycle controller can be downloaded to a USB and then how do I update them - does it book off the USB to do the update or ?? In other words, how do I update the Lifecycle Controller - an F key on startup or ?

Thanks,

Albert

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Thank you. You can update the Lifecycle Controller via the F10 at startup, then Platform Update , from there you can run the Platform update and then point to that file.

AlbertGostick · Answer

Hi Chris,

When I boot into F10, there is unfortunately no "Platform Update" option - only OS deployment, Hardware diagnostics, USC settings and about. The UEFI ver is 2.1; the USC ver is 1.5.5.18.

Do I have to update the bios first to get those options?

The download file for updating the Life cycle Controller Legacy is an exe file that needs to be run from Windows - but I cannot boot to windows. I tried putting back in the old drive but after a half hour, Windows still had not come up so I need to update the Lifecycle controller from the bios boot options..

thanks

PowerEdge Hardware General

Stuck on Loading OS on R210 II

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