T310 installing new OS

Question

New to Dell.

I worked with nonprofits using PC's as servers, installing Win Server 2012R2, connecting 4 or 5 together as AD, DNS, DHCP, SQL14 etc... Worked great.

Now we have a T310 someone donated. But I never used an actual server before. I went into PERC6i and it is showing my HDs ( 750, 750 and 1T). When I try to install Win Server 2012R2, it does not find any HDs. The manager does not want PERC6 used at this time, maybe later.

I followed a tutorial to change the setting to boot into UEFI, but again, Win Server 2012R2 does not see the HDs. I went into BIOS, found ports A-D as unknown model and unknown device drive type.

I open UEFI and tryed to run hardware diagnostics and it asked not all devices initialization is required. I am running the diagnostic as I type. The SATA HDs failed the confidence test, but passed the SMART & Buffer tests.

So I have several questions, I hope yall don't mind.....

1. How do I initialize my HDs when I do not what to use the RAID options?

2. Do I need to convert the physical HD into Virtual HD even if not using RAID?

3. What the best practices in installing Windows Server 2012R2 on Dell T310?

NEED ADVICE:
We are starting out using this server as a training lab. The idea was to load Windows Server 2012R2 use as the AD & DNS and then Virtual-box. under VB we were going to create the following:

A: Small Business Server 2011 to run the nonprofit to see the functions, train the staff of 5.

B: Win Ser 2012 with SQL14 to use to teach 3 students SQL coding etc...

C: Ubuntu server - again to train the staff on Ubuntu and Linux operations, & Oracle 12c.

QA

1. would it be best to load Windows Server 2012 or Small Bus 2011 straight onto the machine then add Virtual-Box?

DELL-Chris H · Answer

Shephs04,

To start, the issue you are seeing with installing the OS, what you need to do is access the Perc 6/i BIOS and configure the Virtual Disk. You can see how to do this, starting on the bottom of page 85 into page 86, in this walkthrough. To address your next question, when you boot the OS media and don't sqee the drives, this is caused by the Virtual Disk not being created, as well as the possibility of the driver not being loaded. After creating the Virtual Disk, boot to the OS media, since you are installing Server 2012, the Raid controller drivers should be native to the OS media.

I would suggest 2012, as SBS 2011 will have more limitations.

Let me know if this helps answer your questions.

theflash1932 · Answer

It is not finding the drives because you have to configure RAID first. The PERC 6 does not support non-RAID, so only configured RAID arrays are presented to the OS as "disks".

Why would the manager not want to use the PERC right now?! You can't just willy nilly add it later - you would have to either do a full restore to different hardware or reinstall and set up from scratch when you add it later. It isn't a big deal to use it now - just need to understand the hardware and process.

The only thing UEFI is typically used for is if your boot "disk" is going to be larger than 2TB, which it doesn't sound like is the case, so UEFI won't change anything here.

Onboard SATA ports should be disabled (except for maybe the optical drive) when using the PERC. The drives will not be visible in the BIOS either. You manage the individual drives through the CTRL-R utility for the PERC.

1. You would have to connect the drives to the onboard SATA ports. Right now the drives are connected to the PERC. Complication 1 - you might have a backplane (drives available via caddies from outside the system, in which case there is no way to connect them to the onboard SATA ports. Complication 2 - If your disks are SAS, there is no way to connect them to the onboard SATA ports.

2. Again, the PERC does not support non-RAID, so every disk you want available must be part of an array (virtual disk). To use a disk as a standalone, individual disk, it must be set up as a single-disk RAID 0. Based on the disks you listed, I would recommend you set up the 750's in a RAID 1 (mirror) and the 1TB as a single-disk RAID 0 for non-critical data or to simply hold a backup image of the RAID 1 data. (RAID is not a backup, so make sure you have a backup plan as well.)

3. Easiest way is to boot from the 2012 DVD and install. Again ... boot to CTLR-R to configure and initialize the RAID before installing. 2012 should have native drivers for the PERC. Just go to support.dell.com to check for any drivers after the install. Best practice - update system firmware (BIOS, iDRAC, PERC ,etc.) before the install (may not be crucial before, but should be done after if you get that far). You can also use Dell's SMTD DVD to help install the OS - this will walk you through configuring RAID and installing all the drivers during the install.

As far as your proposed setup, I would recommend using a real hypervisor. Server 2012 has Hyper-V built-in and is far more robust than VirtualBox. So, unless you are porting existing VM's to this server from already-existing VirtualBox VM's, I'd recommend using Hyper-V.

Is there a reason for wanting to use SBS?

Is your 2012 R2 the Standard Edition?

shephs04 · Answer

Not an answer, but continue of previous question.....

I have 4 HD, 750, 750 and 1T that are being recognized by the PERC, and at 4th that is a 2T.

So, I am assuming by your reference the UEFI above means that I will not be able to use the 2T if I do not use the UEFI?

I want to use the SBS 2011 just to run our nonprofit basic IT structure (it is small) and to gain experience in a different area of IT that I do not have.

it is the 2012R2 standard edition.

theflash1932 · Answer

So, I am assuming by your reference the UEFI above means that I will not be able to use the 2T if I do not use the UEFI? No, UEFI will have no effect on you configuration.

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