Installing Windows Server 2003 on Poweredge 2850 with Server assistant

Message Edited by fiinfo on 10-12-2006 04:48 AM

Message Edited by fiinfo on 10-12-2006 11:20 AM

I have had the exact same issue plus a few others. When I first ran the SBU it started right off and began processing, it then got to the "precopy. . ." phase (with all 8 drive lights flashing) and just sat there. I thought that it was doing a very thorough job and it was late so I left it for the day. When I arrived in the next AM it was still at the same spot. I decided that this simply could not be right and rebooted the PE2900. his is where the fun really started.

First the disc would no longer boot, well it started to boot then hung up. After 5 or 6 Ctrl-Alt-Del's, all with varying degrees of the same problem, I shut the system down to do a little research before continuing. After about 30 minutes I powered the 2900 on and low and behold the SBU booted. I went through the setup again and this time all went as it should, I inserted the requested OS CD (Windows Server 2003 Standard R2) and it began copying it to the primary partition, all was good until it hit 95% when it declared that the the CD was unreadable - :-(.

I then rebooted the server, cleared the RAID Controller Event Log (Ctrl-E), checked the RAID (Ctrl-R) for anything out of the ordinary - all looked right, and proceeded through multiple shutdowns and reboots before the SBU finally came up. I got another, known to be good, OS disc set and once again setup the install options and . . . it again failed at 95% due to an unreadable disc! :-|. I was beginning to believe that there was a problem with Dell's SBU.

At this point I went with the direct installation from Microsoft's media only to run into the additional drivers issue. I did not have a floppy disc drive, internal or external, and was unable to find a way to configure the BIOS to use an USB drive as a floppy drive. I talked to a Dell Tech Support agent who suggested that I download the newest version of the SBU DVD. It was late so I decided to do this at home while I relaxed -- wrong! My first attempt to fetch the image resulted in a 150kb connection with Dell's FTP server, I bit the bullet and decided to wait it out. After 3 or 4 hours, at ~ 85% completed the connection "timed out!" I waited a few minutes and tried again, hoping to have the file in the morning so that I could write the disc and take it with me -- wrong! It had timed out at about the same place.

I am currently downloading it again, with a somewhat faster connect to Dell, and it is currently at ~80% done. I have also slipstreamed an OS disc with the PERC 6i drivers so, if this download actually finishes, I will be able to return to the site and have two chances to get it going. I did read that someone was able to install using an external USB floppy drive so I am thinking that I should bring this as well, in case there is a problem with my slipstreamed disc. -- ~ 400MB to go on the DVD image download -- 

Does all this seem a bit much to anyone other than me? I now have about zero confidence in the SBU and I am wondering why, given the probable need to do a barebones install, Dell does not either make a floppy drive standard equipment or make allowances in the BIOS to use a flash drive in it's place.

JRM 

I had all the same issues as expressed in this thread, and the only way i could get Windows installed was using the Server install disc, and a USB floppy, (I guess i could have slipstreamed a install distro, but had the floppy handy, so just went with that). I was able to get SBU to load every time, but every time i would try to push the OS install from SBU it would stall at precopy stage at 53% (This is on a PE - 1950 by the way). So I downloaded the perc 5i/6i drivers from Dell, and put them on a floppy, then as the system was booting, i went into the bios, and made sure that the bios saw the USB floppy, but on the surface, i couldn't see the floppy or usb anywhere. So i checked the boot sequence and low and behold there was my USB floppy, which was labeled as "Front USB - USB Flashbuster 1" and it was checked as a boot device, so I got out of BIOS, and proceeded to boot from the Server Install disc. Once the install distro got started i was sidetracked, so i missed the F6, but it didn't seem to matter because when i looked back at the install window, it just so happened that it was already loading the percsas.sys file, and i didn't even have to press F6. At this point the installation went as usual, and was fairly painless, So it was easier to load a Dell PE-1950 using the Windows Server install disc than with the actual Install disc that is supposed to be used to load these servers (hmmmmmm). 

The installation utility is great and usually simplifies the OS install process, HOWEVER, it does have some restrictions and requirements that sometimes makes it unsuitable for OS installations (or simply more work) ... Service Pack level, firmware versions, media origin/type - and some oddities for specific systems can affect its effectiveness.  Don't let it scare you away from future installs, as it is generally easier.

Well agree with you 100%, installing to a HP server is a hell of lot easier than this, even with their built in Raid controller. Having to load this Installation disk first is a pain.

I was under the impression that HP used a bootable utility as well ... not that I care.  Newer systems have all the drivers installed on a management platform on the server, so installation is much more streamlined.