I thought I would throw this out to DellCommunity-land to see if anyone else can shed a bit of light on a problem I have been facing recently.  I am dabbling with the holy grail of Hardware Independent Images (HIIs) and have been having some limited success.  For instance I can create an image on a PE2950 which can then be successfully deployed to a PE1955 or M600.  However my problems start when I introduce the PER900 because I cannot get things to work with this server.

 

When I deploy the same image to this device, sysprep does it's mini-setup and runs through without incident but then when it comes to starting Windows (2003 SP2), the splash screen appears and the bar goes to and fro for a while but then freezes.  That is it.  On the LCD display of the R900, error E1410 is displayed and in the DRAC logs there is an entry for each processor saying "CPUx Status: Processor sensor for CPUx, IERR was asserted".

 

When I create the image on the R900 and deploy that to the 2950, a similar thing happens with the logs and LCD display on the 2950.  Each server builds fine when using a scripted build so I know that the servers are okay it is just the image side of things that I would like to solve.

 

I have been using a white paper created by Eric Szewczyk which has been invaluable in setting up the environment.  This document covers the creation of a sysprep.inf and collation of Dell drivers (amongst other things), all of which seem to be okay.  The fact that an image created on a 2950 can then be deployed to a 1955/M600 shows that images can go beyond generation (there are 9th & 10th Generation servers here) and format (PE2950 = Rack, 1955/M600 = Blade).

 

Has anyone successfully managed to get a single image to allow them to build a range of servers?  I just wonder if I am trying the impossible here!