PowerEdge 2400 Resurrection

Manfred ... your link is for 4.5.1, which is a minor release for only a handful of 8G systems.  He needs to use the one he is likely already using - 4.5:

http://ftp.dell.com/sysman/4.5_ISM_A00.ISO

We can help ... so can Dell's Technical Support (in the US/Canada) - even out of warranty.

PowerEdge 2400 Documentation:

support.dell.com/.../en

ROMB (RAID On MotherBoard):

ISM 4.5 is likely the last version to support the 2400 (if it is indeed supported - can't get to the OM docs right now) - 5.0 (the next version) does NOT support the 2400.  4.5 will not support OS's newer than 2003 though.

What OS are you hoping to install?

EDIT:  4.5 does support the 2400 (just checked the readme) ... 4.5.1 does not.

Hi jmlled01

Rest assured, 4.5 ISM ISO does indeed support PE 2400.

ISM ISO:-

www.dell.com/.../DriverDetails

However, I can't find any 4.5 ISM documentation.

You may refer to this doc on how to use the ISM cd on Windows OS:-

support.dell.com/.../sosrvrmen.pdf

Let us know how it goes.

If you try installing a SCSI optical drive, just remember that you cannot connect this to the RAID controller.  Without looking, I don't know if this is the case with the 2400 or not, but you may have two SCSI connectors, and you may be able to set one to SCSI and one to RAID (in the BIOS Setup F2 under Integrated Devices). Or you can use another add-in SCSI non-RAID controller specifically for the optical drive.

Here is what I have:

integrated Adaptec AIC-7890 Ultra2/LVD SCSI host adapter supporting four 1.6-inch SCSI hard-disk drives or six 1-inch SCSI hard-disk drives in internal bays (I have 6, as RAID 5 via the PERC2/Si here)

integrated Adaptec AIC-7880 Ultra/Wide SCSI host adapter supporting up to three SCSI devices in externally accessible front bays, implemented as Ultra/Narrow (I have the DAT and CD here)

So there's room for a SCSI DVD, just not an extra power connector. I guess I'm worried about tripping a voltage sensor if I use a splitter, or running into some proprietary issue with respect to a "non Dell" DVD, or whatever...  Before I buy one, I was hoping to find some guidance on whether an off brand will be recognized, be bootable, etc. A link to an approved upgrade device would be great, or an old Dell part number, source for drive rails, etc.

I would just leave it alone, but so many packages come on DVD now. CDs are not always obtainable...

Like I said, I know this is an old machine, so am not expecting miracles, but any hints would be appreciated.

Thanks again for your (quick!) response.

Ok, I see ... I probably would not try a splitter ... I'd probably get rid of either the CD or DAT drive.

I can't speak from experience or from documented knowledge, but there would probably not be any issue.  I have used a number of technically-unsupported optical drives in some of the 6G/8G servers (took the DVD drive from an old HP laptop, which worked).  I doubt there are any validated DVD drives for the 2400, so you might have no choice other than to "try" one.  But, maybe, just maybe, there is someone with one of these machines that might know this first-hand ... not sure how long you want to wait ;)

Well, I bought an old Toshiba SD-M1401 DVD/CD drive. They were commonly used on Sun servers, and of a similar vintage as the PE2400, so thought I would try it. I installed it in place of the Dell CD drive, so no splitter involved. The Adaptec controller finds and recognizes it just fine, but I can't boot from it. I've tried known-bootable CDs and DVDs, but no dice. I verified the SCSI ID is the same as the CD was, and the 7880 setup is still set to look for that as a bootable device. The problem is, although it lights up and is shown on the SCSI device list, the eject feature doesn't work. I've had to use the paperclip trick to open it, so now I'm thinking it may be a bad unit in ways other than just a sticky tray / failed eject motor. So... risk it and try another one? Anyone else have any experience with this issue? I don't know how to split a 2 or 3 GB Linux distro into multiple CDs, where the first one will boot and prompt for the next, etc. so I really want to find a DVD solution. Thanks again for any help!

Congratulations on your purchase.

it's been a long time since I've dealt with a PE2400 but I remember them being unable to boot from a DVD even if you replaced the CD-Rom with a DVD drive.  If the front panel button on the DVD drive won't eject the tray, you may have a problem with the eject motor as you suspect.  I've seen this before especially if the drive has sat for a while with no media in the drive.  If you have media in the drive and it still won't eject, the drive is probably bad.  If you have the time and money, you might check around the Internet for someone selling the original CD-Rom drive for the PE2400 and see if you can pick it up for cheap.   From there, you can boot from the CD-Rom.  You might have to poke around to find a Linux distro small enough to fix on a CD.

Before you try, no, you can't boot from a USB drive.

Good luck.

In case anyone is interested, I bought another Toshiba SD-M1401 DVD drive, and it works perfectly. I guess the first one was just a bad unit. I can now boot from DVD, and am setting up a dual boot system with RHEL 6.1 and Win2k03. My last issue seems to be with the onboard ATI Rage 3d IIC adapter. Windows likes it just fine, but Linux does not. I can install with nomodeset, and deal with it later... but just in case I can't get it to work, one last question: Can a PCI graphics adapter be installed in this machine? I don't see a way to disable the embedded ATI AGP in the setup menu, but maybe it would just be ignored if I installed a card? Again, thanks for any help, past and future!

Add on video cards are not an option from Dells perspective but for the adventurous, it all depends on a number of factors. There are a number of posts related to adding video adapters to PE servers, just search 'video' on the server forum and read some of them.

Quickly put, if you plug a video adapter into the PCI slot and within BIOS you then have an ability to set the 'integrated video adapter' to 'disable', this question then answers itself :). If you don't have such an option, it's very much a hit miss affair trying to get a card that will work and usually it's too much for most.

From memory there was some posts (PE1950 possibly?) that related to defining a video card as the primary adapter within linux but in doing so, nothing was viewable on this add on card (boot progress and BIOS setup screens) until the OS was up and controlling the card.

If you want details, best to search and read.

Wow i just acquired one of these today and am looking to do the same.. lots of awesome info in this thread thank you very much...