PERC 4/Di and Server Assistant Problems

Question

We have been using PowerEdge 1750 for sometime now. The Windows Server 2003 started giving problems a few days back so we decided to reinstall the OS. So, at computer boot, after pressing Ctrl M we started RAID BIOS configuration utility. Then we created array/logical drives with two SCSI hard disks of 36 GB each. We created another array with third SCSI drive of 140 GB capacity. The logical drives were then initialized. Then we boot up with Server Assistant CD v8.0.0. Everything goes well, until we reach the stage where the server assistant cd boots and shows "Server Assistant is now starting.." After 2 minutes we start getting all kinds of messages on the screen like umount....... dconfig:/mnt/stage4/usr/x11r6/lib/libfreetype.so.6 is not an ELF file - it has the wrong magic bytes at the start...... Unsupported system detected.....Press enter to reboot system..

We have tried to configure and intialize the logical drives several times. Once we did get lucky and the OS copying started but then it did not go through all the way, so we had to reboot.

Please help us out as we have lost 5 days trying to reinstall the OS. In the past we had run Server Assistant Cd without any problem to reinstall Windows 2003 OS.

Any assistance will be highly appreciated.

regards,

Dapper

warwizard55 · Answer

Dapper,

Likely you are using an old server assistant CD, one that does not know about the PE1750. The server assistant CD should list the supported systems on the label. You can or cannot get a manual install to work? If no, then it's time to call Dell, you might have media errors on the drives, or some other H/W issue.

warwizard DCSP

DapperDude · Answer

WarWizard, When you say manual install, what do you mean?  please elucidate. Rgds, Dapper

DapperDude · Answer

We are using the version of Server Assistant CD that came with PE 1750. In the past, we did use the SA cd to reinstall the OS without any problem.

Should be disable BIOS in PERC configuration utility before we run SA cd to reinstall OS?

We are trying to boot the system with the OS cd directly and bypass Server Assistant CD. So, far it has not worked as everytime we try to boot directly using our OS CD, we get message No boot device available, Enter f1 to boot again.

Pls help,

Dev Mgr · Answer

A manual install is to insert the OS CD and boot to it. Feed it the floppy for the PERC driver (if needed); install the OS the 'old fashioned' way.

warwizard55 · Answer

Thanks Dev Mgr, Dapper, as Dev Mgr said.

DapperDude · Answer

Thank you for you help.  I have another issue which I wanted your input on.    The OS was installed finally on the PE1750.  Now when I configuring RAID 1, I selected the size of the Array 0 to be 8gb whereas the size of the disk was 36 gb.  Array Group 0 has two disks; Array Disk 0:0 and Array Disk 0:1.  In the Array Manager, I see the capacity of the disks to be 36 gb and unallocated space 0.00 gb.  In my computer, i only see 8 gb of space and drive C.  How do I make use of the balance 28 gb of space on the disk which i am unable to see anywhere? Neither in my computer or the Dell OpenManager Array Manager?   Please help me with this issue and oblige.   Rgds,   DD

warwizard55 · Answer

Hi Dapper Dude,

Well, disk management or array manager is supposed to be able to create your D: drive in the free space from your 36 GB RAID 1 .

Here is the applicable section from the Array manager 3.7 manual.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smarrman/marb37/EN/diskmgmt.htm#1017969

Cheers,

warwizard DCSP

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

PERC 4/Di and Server Assistant Problems

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