Help with a test server

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
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I have an HP Proliant DL120 G5 server for testing with VMware Server on Server 2003 standard. At the moment I have wiped it and it shows 2 disks of 150GB

I have pressed F6 to go to install 3rd party RAID drivers then it points to floppy drive A, I have plugged in a USB floppy drive but cannot find the drivers

Could someone please point me in the right direction. I have never setup Raid like this before or VMware server.

As its only going to be a test server so I could get Server 2003 on one of the drives without RAID but it defeats the object of having two disks. However the drives are not hot swappable either, so i wont even know if one dies.

edit - I know some people say the HP smartstart cds are a way of nannying a raid install but i have only done it that way before (and only once) so some help with the 'proper' raid setup way would be useful

Thanks
 
Raid is easy peasy.
Just hit F8 when the Smart Array prompts you, the rest is pretty self explanatory really.
You will want them in 0+1 mode for redundancy I would assume.
If you only have 2 drives that thats the only option it will give you anyway.

As for the raid drivers, you cant use a usb floppy unfortunatly.
The only way will be to boot off the smartstart cd and select OS install and have it inject the drivers for you.
I cant remeber the exacat steps unfortunatly as its been a while since I did it, should be dead simple.
At some stage it will ask you for the windows CD and then the install should just carry on as normal.

As your going to be using VMWare on the server, why not just build the VM server first and then install 2003 as a VM. No need for raid drivers then.
VMWare is the easiest thing to install ever, just pop the CD in, let it boot and follow the prompts.
Just take the defaults for everything and when it asks give it a name and IP address.
Once its done just use a web browser on another machine and browse to the servers IP address and download the managment client from the link provided.

If you need any more help just shout :D
 
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DL120 probably is not supported by SmartStart.

Slipstream the driver into your install media using something like nLite.

You might need to enable RAID in the BIOS to get to the RAID bios, again, I cant remember if a 120 G5 supports smartstart but if not then just make it through the RAID cards BIOS accessible when booting, same deal, not as a pretty but gets the job done.
 
Although it's a Dell tool, you could try their USBKeyPrepF6 utility. It will allow you to emulate a floppy drive using a USB flash drive; it's how I installed Server 2003 on my Dell servers that lack physical floppy drives.
 
Saundie said:
Although it's a Dell tool, you could try their USBKeyPrepF6 utility. It will allow you to emulate a floppy drive using a USB flash drive; it's how I installed Server 2003 on my Dell servers that lack physical floppy drives.
Click to expand...

This is the stage im at. I press F6 then it asks for 3rd party raid drivers off a floppy drive (which is plugged into a front usb port)




Venares said:
As for the raid drivers, you cant use a usb floppy unfortunatly.
The only way will be to boot off the smartstart cd and select OS install and have it inject the drivers for you.
Click to expand...

The G5 does not support smartstart unfortunately



Venares said:
As your going to be using VMWare on the server, why not just build the VM server first and then install 2003 as a VM. No need for raid drivers then.
VMWare is the easiest thing to install ever, just pop the CD in, let it boot and follow the prompts.
Just take the defaults for everything and when it asks give it a name and IP address.
Once its done just use a web browser on another machine and browse to the servers IP address and download the managment client from the link provided.

If you need any more help just shout :D
Click to expand...

So far I have just tested VMware workstation on a single machine. I have downloaded the VMWare server exe install and planned on installing Server 2003 (with Raid 1) then running this binary on top of Server 2003. Sorry, I dont know what you mean by 'build the VM Server first.

I know VMware ESX Server can be installed straight onto hardware without and OS but I think it would be easier to get it installed onto 2003, atleast then other things can be put onto the server if needed or we dont go ahead with VMware. I dont have a CD for VMware, just the installer from the VMware site

Thanks for the help guys/girls
 
Guest2 said:
When I leave it, it gets to the install section and shows 2 physical drives to install an OS on
Click to expand...


You NEED to press f6 for the raid drivers to have the raid working correctly.

I'm assuming you've two sata disks on a raid card? Or you motherboard has raid compatibility build in ?

Either way you're going to need the raid drivers for your card / mobo.

The usual way is to goto the raid card's website / motherboard website and there will be a specific link to download a driver which will self extract to your floppy drive - note that usb floppy devices may be flaky with this as a specific usb driver will/may be needed to manipulate the A drive during OS install.

My suggestion (and what i normally do.. and did literally two days ago in work) is use an IDE floppy drive attached to your board, it will be detected better, i've had problems using usb floppys for raid drivers before.

Download the drivers.
Install IDE floppy
Copy drives to floppy
Reboot to win2003 server install
F6 for raid drivers
It will ask u to use floppy drive, hit okay
select raid driver

gl..
 
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http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...wEnvOID=1113&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1

There's your driver.

Here's your instructions:

To ensure the integrity of your download, HP recommends verifying your results with this MD5 Checksum value:
dc6d39e54d960b76394c27461f4d3549 cp008698.exe

Installation:
Installation:

To use the driver while installing Windows Server 2003:

In this scenario, the driver will be loaded during the Windows Server 2003 operating system installation. To install the driver:

* Create a driver disk by extracting the contents of the Smart Component to a floppy diskette.
* If creating an array, press Ctrl+A or F8 when prompted to enter the BIOS Setup utility.
* Press F6 when prompted to install a third-party driver.

Note: When F6 is active, a prompt appears at the bottom of the screen. Press F6 immediately—you only have 5 seconds. If you miss your chance, restart this Windows installation to complete it correctly. Otherwise, Windows will not recognize your controller.

* Insert the driver disk you created in Step 1 and wait until prompted to install a driver.
* Press "S" to specify that the driver is on the floppy disk, then press Enter.
* When the HP Embedded SATA RAID driver is found, press Enter. Follow the remaining on-screen instructions to complete your installation.

Installing the driver on a system already running Windows Server 2003:

In this scenario, you are installing a driver in a system that already has a Windows operating system. To install the driver:

* Download the Smart Component to a directory on your hard drive and change to that directory. The downloaded file is a self-extracting executable with a filename based on the Smart Component Number.
* From that drive and directory, execute the downloaded file to install the driver.
 
Ignore that startsmart rubbish. Doesn't work. Do the above, it WILL work, I do it a lot..

Have you setup the raid by the way in the raid utility ? Take it you want RAID 1?
 
unp|dissy said:
You NEED to press f6 for the raid drivers to have the raid working correctly.

I'm assuming you've two sata disks on a raid card? Or you motherboard has raid compatibility build in ?

Either way you're going to need the raid drivers for your card / mobo.

gl..
Click to expand...

Done that, as in my first thread...

'I have pressed F6 to go to install 3rd party RAID drivers then it points to floppy drive A, I have plugged in a USB floppy drive but cannot find the drivers'

I cannot find the drivers for the Proliant DL120 G5
 
Guest2 said:
Done that, as in my first thread...

'I have pressed F6 to go to install 3rd party RAID drivers then it points to floppy drive A, I have plugged in a USB floppy drive but cannot find the drivers'

I cannot find the drivers for the Proliant DL120 G5
Click to expand...

I've linked directly to the drivers in one of my above posts.

Try an IDE floppy :)
 
Guest2 said:
Still looking for the drivers, yep, I will want RAID 1
Click to expand...

Did you setup raid 1 in the raid utility selecting both devices? This may take 30 mins or so to format and create the raid, but once thats done the proliant driver for win 2k3 (linked above) will allow windows to read the motherboards raid device and apply the raid settings created in the raid util
 
I got the drivers (some other 32bit ones instead of 64bit) extracted them to floppy drive, followed instructions - F6, S then 'When the HP Embedded SATA RAID driver is found, press Enter. Follow the remaining on-screen instructions to complete your installation.'

It just continued to the install screen where i was at before with 2 logical drives shown. Do i need to F8 or Ctrl & A into bios to create an array before doing this?
 
Guest2 said:
I got the drivers (some other 32bit ones instead of 64bit) extracted them to floppy drive, followed instructions - F6, S then 'When the HP Embedded SATA RAID driver is found, press Enter. Follow the remaining on-screen instructions to complete your installation.'

It just continued to the install screen where i was at before with 2 logical drives shown. Do i need to F8 or Ctrl & A into bios to create an array before doing this?
Click to expand...

yes, make the raid array before installing windows because the disks will be formatted, if u install windows first thwen make the array, the disks will be formated and ur windows installed wiped into oblivion:)

Good to know the drivers work!:

Make RAID 1 array with bios tool (F8 / CTRL+A ON BOOT)
Install windows

:D
 
And, and t's a good sign that it detected the drivers and let you continue, the fact that it has done so shows u the drivers work okay.

Just make the array first.
 
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