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17537
November 6th, 2010 03:00
Procedure for installing OS on clean Poweredge server
I have just taken delivery of a T310 without an OS. The system only came with a disk described as Systems Management Tools and Documentation (SMT) and a small hardware setup manual but there was no mention of how to load an OS. I already have a SBS2003 OS ready to install.
However if I load the SMT disk and boot the server all I get is the message 'no operating system found'. I did not see if it accessed the SMT disk during the boot sequence. I haven't tried putting the SBS2003 disk in and try booting again because I am not sure if this is the correct thing to do.
Does anybody where I can find the proper procedure for loading an OS to include the management software and tools available from Dell ?
theflash1932
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16.3K Posts
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November 14th, 2010 19:00
If you didn't figure out the actual reason it was asking for the OM disk, its because you had checked the "Install OpenManage Server Administrator" while using SBUU. Unchecking that would not have asked for an OM disk.
There is no such thing as "bloatware" on servers. All OEM's recognize the importance of servers being as pristine as possible, so nothing is included. Three things from the Support Site that you should install on every server, and should have no affect on services or applications running on the server:
If you install nothing else, install OMSA. Everything else from the Support Site serves a purpose to your organization - whether or not you might be able to benefit from what it offers is up to you to learn more about it.
For what reason would you convert the disks to Dynamic? Dynamic has its place, but only for a very few things. Unless you need it specifically for some reason, I would keep them as Basic. As far as the RAID is concerned, it is "ok" to convert them, if needed. Just don't convert them to create a software RAID in the Windows software.
theflash1932
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16.3K Posts
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November 6th, 2010 10:00
Boot to the SMTD disk ... this will start a wizard to configure RAID, set boot partition, etc., then it will prompt you for the Windows DVD. Note: SMTD often will not work with VL/OL media downloaded from Microsoft, and it will require your installation media to have Service Pack 2 on it. If it doesn't, you can use nLiteOS.com to integrate the Service Pack into your installation media and create a new CD to use. If you don't see something "Linux/CentOS" load, then it is not booting to the DVD. Go to F2 Setup, Boot Order, and set the DVD drive to the top - AND make sure it is active in the boot order (check-mark or similar may show).
Be prepared for it not to work, as 2003SBS is not officially supported on the T310, so you may not even have the option during the wizard to install 2003SBS. If not, you will need to install directly from the Windows CD(s). Going this route, you will also need the RAID controller driver and a floppy disk. Since your T310 likely doesn't have a floppy drive, you can use nLiteOS.com to integrate the driver into your installation media and create a new CD to install from. Your RAID driver will likely require SP2 on your installation media too, so use nLite for this.
Gizzo
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November 14th, 2010 16:00
Flash - thanks for the advice.
I have spent a lot of this weekend setting this system up. Here is some of he steps I took leaving out many of the failed attempts.
Firstly the would not boot from the DVD drive. Tweaking the BIOS to fix some incorrect supplied settings finally got it to work.I noticed that the three SATA drives were set as standard drives so using the Perc S300 controller I have now set them up as Raid5 one virtual disk.
Next the System Build and Update DVD did not show SBS2003 as a selectable product but according to Microsoft HCL I think I read that SBS2003 can be treated the same as Server 2003 so that is what I selected. However it would not get beyond 15% progress. So downloaded the version from the support pages and tried it. This allowed me to select SBS 2003 !
This progressed further but at one stage asked for the OM disk. I downloaded what I could from the support pages, burned them onto CDs and tried but the install process just kept spitting them out without an explanation.
Going back to the original System Build DVD I noticed some marks on it so after cleaning and trying again I made more progress (avoiding the section on configuring hardware). Followed the advice on saving the configuration files to hard disk for the OS install script to access.
I have two copies of SBS 2003. One called R2 and a premium SP1 version. Neither would work on their own so the premium SP1 had to be slipstreamed with SP2 so that it would have the appropriate drivers. Eventually got SBS 2003 SP2 loaded and activated.
I had a look at the MS Update pages for the OS and found far too many updates. As SP2 fixes most of the critical bugs I will wait to see what does not work properly before I investigate what updates are required.
Now I need to identify what other software items available from the support pages need to be loaded. I think I used Belarc system advisor previously to identify what software releases were installed and what serial numbers were used. This should help a little.
Does anybody have any views on what additional Dell software is of most use or is it just all bloatware ?
Also have Raid5 disks partitioned as Basic partitions. Would like to convert them to Dynamic partitions. Is this OK to do ?
Gizzo
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November 14th, 2010 16:00
Here is what I found too late after the install, regarding the steps required to use the System Build DVD;
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smsbu/1_3/en/ug/html/sbuuugc3.htm#wp1181121
BjorgenEatinger
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October 2nd, 2012 02:00
Can you please tell me exactly where you found the "System Build and Update DVD" which has SBS 2003 as a selectable OS product? I cannot find it.