New to Dell PowerEdge

Dear all,

 I am fairly new to the Dell Servers.

I got an old PowerEdge R210 II last week. My intentions are purely learning.

It does not have iDRAC (express or integrated). I have flashed the BIOS to latest version. After that my F10 has turned into "System Services update required". I tried to install windows 2008 R2, Windows 2012 R2 and even Windows 2016! I tried all the drivers for my drives for getting them detected for partitioning and installation. Everything failed.

When I press Ctrl+R, it shows one of my 1TB Dell HDD failed and offline. I think it is gone. Somebody tell me what to do to make it work. I tried RAID but could not install OS then I turned to AHCI. Still failed. Last option ATA also failed. Then, I don't know how I reached a lenovo site, and it was saying to download a particular driver for SATA and bingo! It worked. Now I have installed Win 2012 R2 in AHCI mode.

Now I need to learn more how can I make it perfect.

1. Please let me know how can I get my Unified Server Configurator working.

2. Please let me know how can I run my server on RAID.

3. My BMC firmware version is 1.95.01, BIOS version is 2.10.1 the latest. While on windows I tried to run SUU and BMC firmware updater but all my efforts were unsuccessful.

4. Please let me know if there is any manual on RAID configuration guides or manual as I am totally new to this.

I didn't get the CDs with the server. So I am a stand alone-nowhere to go-totally confused human. Please help. If you need my server ID to see the configuration, I can share it.

Anybody interested to give me a hand?

 

REgards,

Shenny John