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General discussion

Installed Server 2003 on Dell PowerVault 745N

Aug 7, 2008 12:23PM PDT

I recently aquired a Dell PowerVault 745N NAS server with nothing configured on it. I also don't have any of the resource CD's that Dells website says you need to reinstall the OS. Does anyone know of anything I can do to get Server 2003 onto this thing? I don't know much about the system on how to configure it other than the RAID. I tried creating all sort of bootable USB thumb drives today with no luck. Dell Tech Support wasn't very helpful either, but they said the system doesn't have CD-ROM support soooo i'm taking it that I can't just plug in a USB CD-ROM drive and boot a Server03 disc.

Discussion is locked

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Dell.com
Aug 7, 2008 11:14PM PDT

To save yourself months of grief go to Dell.com and order the replacement CDs. Some learn this AFTER they lose the time. Why not save yourself?

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dell cd's
Aug 8, 2008 12:52AM PDT

Do you know where i can get the resource cd's at? I can't seem to find them

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Dell.com
Aug 9, 2008 2:18AM PDT

If need be, pick up the phone and call them. Their web site is a monster to navigate so I often just use the phone.

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Repost for netflow Here's what worked for me...
Oct 9, 2008 10:02AM PDT

Here's what worked for me... - New!
by netflow - 10/9/08 4:59 PM
In reply to: Installed Server 2003 on Dell PowerVault 745N by intrntpirate

I actually have the recovery cd's and usb key for this system. The reinstall process is done over the network with the recovery cd's preloaded on a network share. However, I didn't really care for the way the factory restore configured the system. The default configuration is Raid 5 no spare with 2 virtual disks. Just my luck, I had 2 drives fail on the same day which is what prompted me to try an alternate way to reload the server. Here's what worked for me. Delete existing Raid configuration and re-configure as Raid 5 with spare. Keep some spare drives handy. All the original drives in my system have since perished. You'll need an external usb cd-rom drive and a Windows Server 2003 cd (properly licensed, of course). Download Nlite ( http://www.nliteos.com ) and the PV 745N raid driver from support.dell.com. Create a new Windows 2003 boot cd with the raid driver integrated using Nlite. Boot server from your new Win 2003 cd and reload. Hope that helps.

netflow

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Virtualised storage to be used with VMware
Nov 8, 2008 11:18PM PST

Here's what worked for me... - New!
by Gizmoh1

A. Option a. is to recover original setup with recovery material
B. Option b. (tested) is to install a Windows Server 2003 using an external DVD-drive. Simply set BIOS to boot from USB en plug the drive in the frontal USB-port.
C. Option c. (tested) is to install VMware Hypervisor version ESXi 3.5.0 update2 on a bootable installable version using an external CD-drive. Total deployment-time: 15". Server will be managable through VMware virtual infrastructure client or VMware Virtual Center.


There is a way to make a bootable USB-stick with ESXi, but I haven't tested this, yet. If you include the creation of this USB-disk, you will increase your deployment-time with at least an hour or two.

Setup:
RAID-5 4x250GB 738GB net
ESXi 3.5.0 update2 110271.i386 installable version (www.vmware.com)
The licence-cost is FREE


Gizmoh
gizmoh[@]gmail.com