Topic: HP ProLiant ML110 G7 - Installation SME server 8 (7.5 no Sata support)

[k_graham]

I received a HP ProLiant ML110 G7 and attempted a install on Sunday

I ordered a 4 Gig RAM an manual says to place 1st RAM farthest from Processor which I did but find it odd, especially as HP had a 2 gig chip in 2nd slot from processor, it appears to be working anyway.

My 2nd installation problem was that I was shipped a HotPlug server - yes it has provision for 4 of 3.5" drives but in HP's drive cases (not provided) which they conveniently neglect to mention on their web site. There is a part number 373-211-001 which HP does not provide to my supplier. Supposedly you must buy either the entire drive with case or else buy the separate cage from HP for I think about $75.00 each! Fortunately there is an alternative if one goes to EBAY and type in 373-211-001 and they appear to be available for about $15.00 each. Extremely frustrating as HP creates blank cages to block airflow but specifically crafted so you can't convert them to hold  drives.

There was an empty 5.5 inch slot below the included DVD drive and there were 2 additional Sata plugins aside from the special SATA plug in for the 4 disk hot plug cage. Of those 2 SATA plug ins 1 was being used for the DVD drive. Anyway I installed the 1 SATA drive and system did not boot up. I first tried a 7.5 SME install disk to see if rerunning a upgrade would install suitable SATA controller software - none found. I then installed SME 8 latest trial version and it did the upgrade.

One benefit regards SME 8, it offers to share multiple network controllers so one may be able to increase throughput over network to the various computers by having more than 1 connection to network switch. Mine only had the 2 network plugs but I see some HP servers have 4.

Anyway the upgrade appeared to go smoothly, my data was visible, a DOS point of sale system worked fine as previously from a Window on a nearby Windows 7 system. Running a DBASE indexing of one program I found a 20% reduction in time required. I decided to try a backup to USB drive attached to server but as with my previous experience on 7.5 I found I could not do a partial restore. I then reformatted the USB drive to EXT3 from FAT32 and left it to again backup over night, with intent to try a partial restore Monday to see if a different formatted drive was the problem.

Monday unfortunately I found the DOS point of sale system would not connect to the SME8 server. These clients are running using Windows97 with WORKGROUP as the workgroup name and they simply can't see the SME8 server. Windows 2007 and XP  systems have no problem.

Consequence, I quickly hooked my older SME7.5 server back for the day.

So the new HP Xeon system appears to have faster transfer but I am going to be re-evaluating purchasing a 2nd due to perceived special hardware. For instance if the motherboard fails I doubt anything but HP would hook up to the Hot plug drive cage. Once running okay I intended to put in the 2nd drive replacing DVD player temporarily until receiving some 15.00 Hotplug disk cages.

Regards SME 8 I am hopeful someone has a suggestions for why Windows 97 computers can't find the SME 8 server

Thanks,

Ken

[Jáder]

Please use this tip: one doubt equal one post on forum.

There are lots of problems with SAMBA greater than 3.2 and old Win9x (SME8 uses SMB 3.5.x).
I know... have learned worst way. It's something about LM_AUTH ...

So, if you must to remain in WIN98... uses SME7... if your hardware isn't supported... upgrade your Win98 (it's a 14 years old system!) to WinXPsp3.
I've been in this position a few weeks ago... I was told ANY other system do not work for a Access97 system...
And after all... I discovered WinXPsp3 would support this system.

[k_graham]

Please use this tip: one doubt equal one post on forum.

There are lots of problems with SAMBA greater than 3.2 and old Win9x (SME8 uses SMB 3.5.x).
I know... have learned worst way. It's something about LM_AUTH ...

So, if you must to remain in WIN98... uses SME7... if your hardware isn't supported... upgrade your Win98 (it's a 14 years old system!) to WinXPsp3.
I've been in this position a few weeks ago... I was told ANY other system do not work for a Access97 system...
And after all... I discovered WinXPsp3 would support this system.

Are you sure Win98 is also a problem - this link http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/w98samba.html suggests Win98 uses a encrypted password as does NT and NT works,  whereas Win97 used plain text. I could upgrade to Win98 if that works - the issue is the DOS based program will print to the dot matrix printers quickly where as Windows NT would take a minute or more to get around to printing.

Alternatively do you think there is a likelyhood I could add SATA controller drivers to 7.5.1  and keep it working?

I would like to upgrade my point of sale system but have never found anything better - have been hoping something Linux based plus ecommerce web based would overwelm the market, sell in the store and on the web- still waiting. Someone is probably going to tell me there's an IPAD ap for that.

Ken



 

[Jáder]

There is no such thing as Win97!

I'm sure Win98 is a problem to SAMBA  >3.2... I've been there... lots of hair pulling... till I give up.

Win98 has DOS also... so your DOS based program should print without any problem. If your program print as TEXT only you can create a queue on server, connect print on server, and configure on Win98 machines a Generic/Text only printer. This way anything your program print will be redirected directly to printer, without any driver messing around.

About SATA drives for SME7.5.1, I'm not sure... maybe you can get them working.
I give  up of fight battles I cannot win... I'm getting old (+40 years old).

If you are not in a hurry... let talk by skype and find out a way out: I'm jader.marasca at skype network. Now I'm GMT-02... till saturday when became GMT-03 (end Daylight summer time). Write here when we can talk, my skype isn't allways on.

[k_graham]

There is no such thing as Win97!

I'm sure Win98 is a problem to SAMBA  >3.2... I've been there... lots of hair pulling... till I give up.

Win98 has DOS also... so your DOS based program should print without any problem. If your program print as TEXT only you can create a queue on server, connect print on server, and configure on Win98 machines a Generic/Text only printer. This way anything your program print will be redirected directly to printer, without any driver messing around.

About SATA drives for SME7.5.1, I'm not sure... maybe you can get them working.
I give  up of fight battles I cannot win... I'm getting old (+40 years old).

If you are not in a hurry... let talk by skype and find out a way out: I'm jader.marasca at skype network. Now I'm GMT-02... till saturday when became GMT-03 (end Daylight summer time). Write here when we can talk, my skype isn't allways on.

Your right it was Win95.

However I found a resolution to it using SME8 - that worked for my Windows 95 and for the Windows 98 I installed today. The search brought up a conversation you had.

daniel 2011-12-15 05:59:33 MST
This should work:

db configuration setprop smb LanManPasswords yes
signal-event workgroup-update

Keep in mind I was just trying to set it up to join a Workgroup - not trying the domain stuff.

I first found it would log into Primary but not an Ibay, once I had the Ibay properly configured I still had to reboot the Windows 95 and 98 workstation - the details must be remembered in the logon, so its not enough to do the change on the Server, you must reboot the workstations after the change to the server.

My Skype is k_graham

Thanks,

Ken

[Jáder]

This should work:

db configuration setprop smb LanManPasswords yes
signal-event workgroup-update[/b]

Keep in mind I was just trying to set it up to join a Workgroup - not trying the domain stuff.

I'm glad my knightmare was useful for someone else.
I give up: installed my server as SME751 to run Win98... and later upgrade Win98 to WinXP
Now I'll have to upgrade SME7 to SME8

Please document your Win98 config on wiki so others can benefit your discoveres.
I was unable to make Win98 logon on SME8 domain. It was complaining about security of passwords...all the time.
I'm glad you got it working... please document!

Regards

Jáder

[k_graham]

I'm glad my knightmare was useful for someone else.
I give up: installed my server as SME751 to run Win98... and later upgrade Win98 to WinXP
Now I'll have to upgrade SME7 to SME8

Please document your Win98 config on wiki so others can benefit your discoveres.
I was unable to make Win98 logon on SME8 domain. It was complaining about security of passwords...all the time.
I'm glad you got it working... please document!

Regards

Jáder

Jader I did not set as Domain - only Workgroup and for that it appeared to work fine. Windows 95 and Windows 98. I had done a fresh install of SME8 on the new HP server after failing to have it work with the upgrade and before seeing the suggested update instructions and thats why I had to set up a new Ibay. My testing was limited to joining the workgroup and confirming I could use the Ibay. (after rebooting windows 95 & 98 computers) This weekend I will again try a upgrade with my data so as to start using the server - that will be the true test.

For those with Windows95 that want to upgrade to Windows98 for USB support and don't have a upgrade version of Windows98 a way around that is to search for win.com and rename it to win.old. I first copied my Win98 disk to the hard drive and then rebooted using F8 key and selecting command prompt only. Then change to directory with WIN98 then setup. Advantage is anytime win98 disk is required for drivers it looks to the win98 directory. Of course a clone backup using redobackup.org or www.clonezilla.org is advisable before any upgrade.

 Thanks, Ken 

[k_graham]

Regards the use of Windows 98 with SME 8 , I am in the process of changing a 2nd system and found a 2nd item seemed to be required.

In addition to

daniel 2011-12-15 05:59:33 MST
This should work:

db configuration setprop smb LanManPasswords yes
signal-event workgroup-update


of lowering password strength to none

http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ#Password_Strength_Checking

After you get Windows 95 and 98 actually working with SME server you can try increasing password strength beyond letters and numbers.

As before one should probably do a system Reconfigure and Reboot of SME server 8 and one needs to reboot Windows 95 or 98 as well and enter name & password on logging on to Windows 95 or 98.

[k_graham]

update - a part number for HP drive cages seems to require a dash removed to be found on ebay now

373211-001 if entered in advanced search for title and description they are available for about $11.00 now.

Also I was having trouble with mdadm monitoring doing a rebuild on
Sundays

A Rebuild60 event has been detected on md device /dev/md2.  where this goes through a complete 20, 40, 60, 80 event over several hours.

I think this is a result of using a combination of Western Digital RE4 Enterprise drives which come with "TimeLimitedRecovery" and default to 3mbps transfer - Am jumpering drives to 1500 kbs as drives have tested good when removing and using a Western Digital Utility to check.

Ken