PowerEdge 2950: floppy drive support?

USB.  

I would recommend using nLiteOS.com to integrate the storage drivers rather than using floppy anyway.  Which RAID controller do you have?  Know that no "client" OS is supported on any Dell server, so you may run into issues installing a client OS, particularly XP.  That doesn't mean it won't work satisfactorily, but it may not.  Why are you installing XP?

There is a CD rom drive. I assumed USB would not be active until after windows was installed?

Could I place raid drivers on the flash drive instead and use windows CD install normally? Will it allow me to select USB during the F6 portion?

I need XP for this special "circa 2003" video capture card. Will not run on server OS at all according to the maker.

I found an old posting on this forum from a fellow who did get XP to work fine with the 2950. The trick is to get the

correct raid chipset drivers.

"I assumed USB would not be active until after windows was installed?"

On pretty much all computers and servers shipping in the last 6-8 years, USB BIOS support (including booting) is standard.

"Could I place raid drivers on the flash drive instead and use windows CD install normally? Will it allow me to select USB during the F6 portion?"

Not unless the flash drive is specially formatted.  Dell has such a utility on the Drivers/Downloads page for the 2950, under System Utilities, but I'll warn you now, it can be flakier than a floppy disk.

"The trick is to get the correct raid chipset drivers"

The RAID and chipset drivers are NOT the same on a 2950.  The 2950 requires a controller CARD to manage the drives attached to the backplane, so the chipset has nothing to do with it.  Chipset would only be important after the OS is installed (installed first, if such a driver for this chipset exists for XP - it is unlikely even on Intel's site, but a 2003 driver might do).

Which RAID/storage controller do you have?

Here is the post I referred to for installing XP on the 2950.

en.community.dell.com/.../18541716.aspx

Can you tell from this what he did? Are there two sets of drivers I need to install or just the one for the SAS controller during F6?

I have the PERC 5i card according to the bios when it comes on.

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Getting ahead of myself here...

Already hitting a snag. I have my windows boot disc already on a CD. I boot to the CD and type fdisk but I get

"error reading fixed disk".

From past experience with setting up my "client" systems this usually means it is not seeing the drive.

The 2950 came Windows Server 2008 and two (15k 73gb SAS)drives installed as 0 and 1. I have 1 pulled so I assume I'm only working with 0 to become my C drive. I'm trying not to do  and Fdisk and format the drive.

OK. So you suggest I forget about using the drivers from the Isilogic web site for this SISAS controller and use these other drivers, correct?

As to having to use raid from the get go... Are you saying this two drive raid becomes my C drive? I'm confused as to this part.

Can I still set up another raid with other drives for these video files.

You have the PERC 5/i ... you can use this XP driver (the T7500 workstation supports XP and also optionally used the PERC 5/i):

ftp.dell.com/.../DELL_MULTI-DEVICE_A07_R211426.exe

You need to download this and run it to extract the contents, then use the 6-8 files inside for use at F6 (or with nLite) to get Windows to see the disks.  Also REMEMBER that the PERC 5/i does NOT support non-RAID, so you MUST configure RAID before Windows can see the disks, even with the right drivers.  If you pulled a disk and want to use the disks separately/individually, then you need to go in and delete the RAID and set up a new single-disk RAID 0.  If you want some redundancy, then do RAID 1 with both disks.

I see from the setup screen there is a SATA 1 and 1 port. Would I be better off installing a small SATA drive back there for my C? Would I simply pull out 0 and 1 to get the server to "see it".

i too would suggest using nliteOS.com, but if you dont want to use that, you can use the F6 utility by putting the drivers on a USB key. There is a readme after the files get extracted.

www.dell.com/.../poweredge-2950

"OK. So you suggest I forget about using the drivers from the Isilogic web site for this SISAS controller and use these other drivers, correct?"

Yes. Keep in mind that while the PERC's are just rebranded LSI controllers, the original specs have been tweaked to Dell's specifications, so you are always better off using a Dell driver when possible. LSI should be your goto in the event that a suitable Dell driver cannot be found or doesn't work.

On most decent hardware RAID controllers, the OS is never exposed to the actual disks connected to the controller. The controller takes the disks, configures them in a "virtual" disk, then presents that virtual disk to the OS to use. For example, if you have two 500GB disks and configure them in a RAID 1 (mirror), the controller manages the mirror and presents the OS with what appears to the OS as a single 500GB disk. If you have three 500GB disks in a RAID 5, then the OS only sees a single 1TB disk, while the RAID controller manages writing/reading to the three individual physical disks behind the scenes.

So, yes, if you configure the two disks in a RAID 1, that will be presented to Windows as a single disk to use. It may not all be the C: drive - it can still be partitioned like you would any other physical drive. If you want to use the disks individually - say have two 500GB disks like you would on a desktop, you would configure each physical disk as a RAID 0 - the OS would then see two physical disks.

The PERC will support up to 64 virtual disks/RAID arrays, so you can have as many arrays on the controller as you can stack into a server.

OK. Getting this now... I think.

I looked under the Integrated PERC bios config utility and see there is a problem. Probably from my pulling out that drive.

It shows Drive 00:00 as online and Drive 00:01 as foreign. I assume I have messed up the raid.

Printing out the manual now so I can try to sort all this out.

After I fix this do I start as I would with my client OS install... that is... will I do Fdisk and then Format using the boot CD?

"I assume I have messed up the raid."

That is correct :)

Assuming you don't want anything currently on the RAID 1, you can simply recreate it.  In CTRL-R, highlight the controller, F2, and delete the existing virtual disk, then create a new one (be sure to check the Advanced and Initialize boxes).

"After I fix this do I start as I would with my client OS install... that is... will I do Fdisk and then Format using the boot CD?"

After RAID is configured, yes, continue with your install, either loading the driver at the F6 prompt or using an nlite-prepared installation CD.  Fdisk is not necessary, but it won't hurt either.

"I only saw a choice of raid 1 and raid 0 this time. It that because there were only the two drives?"

Yes. For example, if you have 4 drives, your choices will be RAID 0 (1 disk or more), RAID 1 (two disks), RAID 5 (3 disks or more), RAID 10 (4 disks or more, in pairs).  If you decide later to add two disks in a new RAID 1, then yes, it will work exactly the same as this one.

"Under Basic Settings | VD size ____MB?"

Leave it as the default to have it use the entire capacity of each 73GB drive.

Keep in mind, if you configure both of your 73GB drives in a single RAID 0, you will appear to have one 146GB disk.  However, if one of those physical disks fails, then everything on both drives will be gone.  You may see a performance bump with RAID 0, but without redundancy, it can be dangerous if you care about the data/services it provides.

Yes, you are correct. Meant to set it for raid 1. Now done.

I had not completed the left side portion where it set the drives to 0 and 1 and that's why there was nothing in the VD___size space. Now it says 69376. I have it initializing.

When it comes time to set up another raid do I do it this same exact way... as virtual drives? I only saw a choice of raid 1 and raid 0 this time. It that because there were only the two drives?

Thanks. I kind of thought that was it.

Initialization completed. All is well as far as that's concerned.

Boot to CD drive w/windows boot disk. Type fdisk and still get same "error reading fixed disk".

Still does not appear to see the drive(s). Any suggestions?