Topic: SME 7.5.1 on Dell PowerEdge R210II

[eiceic]

Hi,

I am having a problem installing SME 7.5.1 on a new Dell PowerEdge R210II Chassis with Cabled 2x3.5 HDs.

When I boot off the CD, it asks me for the Language and Keyboard like usual, but then it asks where the packages are located (HDD, CDROM, select a driver, etc) -- I'm guessing it can't read the CD that it just booted off of.   I am used to installing on HP servers and it just goes straight to asking for the system name / root password /etc..

Here are some of the specs of the system

Primary Hard Drive  (HD Multi-Select)
Internal Controller (No Controller)
Operating System (No Operating System)
Network Adapter (On-Board Dual Gigabit Network Adapter)
Internal Optical Drive (DVD-RW Drive, SATA)
Hard Drive Configuration (PERC S100 [embedded SATA Software RAID] supporting 2 Hard Drives - Raid 1)
Hard Drives [multi-select] ((2) 250GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Cabled Hard Drive]

Any ideas on how to get this system up and running quickly?     

These are the things I'm thinking about thinkng...

Is the problem with recognizing the SATA CD?   If I get past that issue, is it going to bomb on the SATA drives?
Do I need to make a USB SME installer?   
Do I need to find some sort of compatibility mode in the controller bios?   
Is there a driver I can select from the list?   
Do I need to buy a more standard drive controller card that SME can see?

FYI -- I tried it with the SME 8.0 beta 6 and had the same exact problem.

Thanks
Chris Buechler
http://www.eicsoftware.com

[gregswallow]

That is mostly as expected unfortunately:
http://dell.com/OSsupport says RHEL4 is not supported on your server, but it does say RHEL 5.6 is supported, so SME8b6 should work.  If it doesn't, you could wait for the next beta which should be based on CentOS 5.7.

You could also install CentOS6 and something like virtualbox to run a SME7 or SME8 virtual machine.  That is not a supported install method for SME Server, so just mention that if you ever report any bugs.

[eiceic]

Thanks Greg,

Any idea when SME8 b7 is expected?

Is the problem with recognizing the CD ROM, the SATA Hard Drives or both?

Chris

[gregswallow]

I would call Dell for support, you should have some initial free telephone support I would think...and ask about any known problems or tips for installing RHEL5. 

You could look at bug 6701 and 6702 in the bug tracker here, there might be an SATA mode setting you need to change.  Your CDROM is likely SATA as well.

My only suggestions other than calling Dell would be to update the bios, and try CentOS 5.6 or 5.7 and see if those will install.  Watch bug 6715 to see when there is a SME iso built with 5.7

update - found this: http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/cant-create-bootable-device-dell-r210-ii  - says you might need to change UEFI mode to BIOS mode

[eiceic]

Thank you VERY much Greg

[MSmith]

Just installed on a T110 II and I did have to select the SATA AHCI driver to have the CD recognized.  After that, all went perfectly.

[eiceic]

Great!   I'll try it on Monday.  Thank you!

[globalsi]

Just installed on a T110 II and I did have to select the SATA AHCI driver to have the CD recognized.  After that, all went perfectly.

Hi,
I've got also a T110 II.
I want to install SME7.5.1
I'v got same problem than (sata not detected) eiceic
However, I have set in my BIOS (ver 1.2.4):
 * SATA Settings : AHCI
 * Boot Settings : BIOS

Did I miss something ?

Thks a lot

[eiceic]

Hi -- I was able to make that Dell server work by installing VMWare ESX and then installing SME 7.5.1 inside of ESX.

I just bought another Dell server last week though and tried installing SME under VMWare ESX and it wouldn't even install that way -- it just kept hanging on the ISOLINUX message..   I ended up just putting FreeNas on that machine..

Frustrating..

[Stefano]

Hi -- I was able to make that Dell server work by installing VMWare ESX and then installing SME 7.5.1 inside of ESX.

I just bought another Dell server last week though and tried installing SME under VMWare ESX and it wouldn't even install that way -- it just kept hanging on the ISOLINUX message..   I ended up just putting FreeNas on that machine..

Frustrating..

if it did not work as a virtual machine then is a VMWARE issue or a VM misconfiguration.. one of the benefit of virtualization is hw abstraction, so I thing is an issue on your side

P.S.: I run many SME's instances (7.X and (.x) on a esxi3.5 on Dell hw without any issue...

[globalsi]

 
Ok, i've just retry one more time and it's work.
When the OS ask where is the ISO, I choose driver ahci in the list ... the cd and the hard drive are now detected.

Thanks for help guys !