WHS2011 ON 40GB SSD FUN

Jakus · 8 Dec 2011 at 12:59

The little HP microservers are very popular and like many have had a couple for quite a while.
I have tried lots of server OS and I quite like WHS2011 especially as I can run an add-on called Lights-out, You guessed it, it can shut the PC Down

Now you can hack hibernation but actual shutdown is quicker ! So I'm thinking a nice small SSD as a boot drive = even quicker.

This is where the fun starts, do You think You could install "Vail" ! no a chance and I tried everything !

How I fixed it was Ghost a Previous install to a 20GB primary partition, and add the relevant Boot files from the little 100MB "boot partition " it creates on a normal install, obviously it was not going to boot without sorting the Boot loader etc.. But starting up from the install CD I could not believe there is no usable repair options, why ?

Well essentially the OS looks to be Win764 so I booted from a win7 disk, I did not even need to go into the repair console for the normal, FIX BOOT, FIX MBR etc as it came up "windows has detected errors etc " Quick reboot and all is well

Why is it always such a fight do any simple little task with computers ?

I Hope it helps someone out there. And Yes from fully off the little microserver is up and running in 50 Secs and saving Me loads of money on electric

Splint · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:31

Just installed WHS 2011 on on a 60GB SSD, had bit of a pain as well due to minimum requirement being 160gb! It would error when it tried to make the partiton and it was too large for the disk! I guess MS thought they were being helpfull with that requirement.. anyway had a look around and it turns u can work around the issue by adding an ini file to a usb stick which the installer then reads. I placed a file named cfg.ini in the root of the usb stick with the following contents:

[WinPE]
ConfigDisk=1
CheckReqs=0
WindowsPartitionSize=MAX

This then skips the checks and copies the files from the dvd to the hdd and then reboots, as long as you remove the stick before reboots it should carry on the install as usual

Only had the server few days, going to go try lights out now

Jakus · 11 Dec 2011 at 22:19

Well done, Yes interesting the error is "partition too large", I really have no idea why MS add all these unhelpful checks ! A simple advisory would suffice as most of the people playing with server software are a little clued up

Must say I quite like Vail, best I tried so far for Home server.

Little tip for lights out config, Just set it to monitor server shares, nothing else is needed

I use a free wake on lan to wake it up and all seems good so far !

yonderblue · 12 Dec 2011 at 13:04

Splint said:
Just installed WHS 2011 on on a 60GB SSD, had bit of a pain as well due to minimum requirement being 160gb! It would error when it tried to make the partiton and it was too large for the disk! I guess MS thought they were being helpfull with that requirement.. anyway had a look around and it turns u can work around the issue by adding an ini file to a usb stick which the installer then reads. I placed a file named cfg.ini in the root of the usb stick with the following contents:

[WinPE]
ConfigDisk=1
CheckReqs=0
WindowsPartitionSize=MAX

This then skips the checks and copies the files from the dvd to the hdd and then reboots, as long as you remove the stick before reboots it should carry on the install as usual

Only had the server few days, going to go try lights out now

That's what I did with my HP Microserver with a Crucial C300 64gb SSD attached to a Startech 6G SATA card. Fly's along nicely, Shame the WHS2011 Console is so slow even with a normal HDD or a SSD.

Jakus · 12 Dec 2011 at 15:15

Out of interest did the install create a separate boot partition ?

yonderblue · 12 Dec 2011 at 22:39

If you mean the Windows boot loader 100mb partition then yes. For Data (D: Drive) for my HP Microserver I have a HP P212 Raid controller with 4x2TB drives (RAID5) installed. It is a bit of stretch but I have HP Microserver 4 Bay SAS cable connected to the HP P212, I had re-route the SAS cable to fit.

Jakus · 13 Dec 2011 at 02:09

yonderblue said:
If you mean the Windows boot loader 100mb partition then yes. For Data (D: Drive) for my HP Microserver I have a HP P212 Raid controller with 4x2TB drives (RAID5) installed. It is a bit of stretch but I have HP Microserver 4 Bay SAS cable connected to the HP P212, I had re-route the SAS cable to fit.

Ok, thanks, I just wondered as it was essentially a small drive if windows opted out of creating that boot partition.

Splint · 13 Dec 2011 at 22:47

Any issues running lights out and using WOL? I cant wake the computer using the WOL client on my phone, however if I shutdown normally it wakes it fine?!

Edit: nvm, not sure why it failed on me but manual shutdown also failed so wasn't anything to do with lights out..all seems to be running again now, going to presume dyn hadn't updated..

kerrgreg · 22 Dec 2011 at 10:25

Sounds to me that most of your problems lie with the Image software you are using.

If you install onto a normal drive (ie over the 160gb limit issue) then use something like acronis this would normally copy the entire contents of the drive ie boot loader recovery partition etc etc etc.

We use this at work and never had any issues even used it to repair and break out copy's of live raid arrays

Jakus · 22 Dec 2011 at 10:39

I understand what you are saying but it does not remove the boot partition which I did not want.

Vanilla_Ice · 2 Jan 2012 at 19:09

yonderblue said:
If you mean the Windows boot loader 100mb partition then yes. For Data (D: Drive) for my HP Microserver I have a HP P212 Raid controller with 4x2TB drives (RAID5) installed. It is a bit of stretch but I have HP Microserver 4 Bay SAS cable connected to the HP P212, I had re-route the SAS cable to fit.

Assuming this all fits insdie the microserver, your hardware choices sounds like what I am looking for. Would you mind listing the HP part numbers providing that doesn't break the rules?

Cheers,

ICE