For you Hardware/Server guys...Dell Poweredge 2850 SCSI Hard Drive topic

So here is the plan. I have a Dell Poweredge 2850 with 4 hot swap SCSI HDD's each with 146GB. Last night I installed Win Server 2003 Standard on drive 0 (Labled as 0 - 3 with a max of 6 drives usable) since the PowerEdge 2850 only supports Server 2003. I have been researching and made my choice for Network Monitoring Software to use Pandora FMS Open Source. I am decent with CentOS (aka Red Hat) and would like to aviod wiping out the Server 2003 as it took me 3-4 hours to install the OS and SQL Server 2008 (Not a fan of Windows Server).

I know CentOS has a GRUB boot loader. But to get to my question, I should just be able to add and remove the SCSI HDD's to install/boot whatever OS I would like to work with correct? Since the BIOS will load the Dell RAID and spin the disks up to speed, then search the disks for the Master Boot Record.

I hope my words make sense.

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Comments

ptilsen

Last time I had to work with a Poweredge's RAID array in a similar capacity, it did not automatically load an array. After disconnecting a drive or set of drives, I had to re-import them to complete the array. I'm betting you will have the same experience. It's not a show-stopper; it just means you would have to hit a few buttons everytime you switched.

TBH, if the server is really old enough that it doesn't support virtualization, you'd almost be better off using a VM on modern hardware. A ~$700 desktop is generally more powerful and useful than a pre-2008 server.

vanquish23

ptilsen wrote: »

Last time I had to work with a Poweredge's RAID array in a similar capacity, it did not automatically load an array. After disconnecting a drive or set of drives, I had to re-import them to complete the array. I'm betting you will have the same experience. It's not a show-stopper; it just means you would have to hit a few buttons everytime you switched.

TBH, if the server is really old enough that it doesn't support virtualization, you'd almost be better off using a VM on modern hardware. A ~$700 desktop is generally more powerful and useful than a pre-2008 server.

You bring up a good point. Reloading the Array would just be more work than just installing a boot loader. I guess I will try the GRUB boot loader and see if that will work.

I bougth the PowerEdge 2850 because it was cheap on ebay for around 200 with free shipping. The decent packages on ebay for a 2950 for VT/HT Server 2008 is 400 -500. I have 4 desktops, just have other plans for them. I got the Poweredge to setup in my networking rack.

LinuxRacr

I just bought a PE 2950 last week for $300 off craigslist, but I still need to get drives and memory for it.

vanquish23

LinuxRacr wrote: »

I just bought a PE 2950 last week for $300 off craigslist, but I still need to get drives and memory for it.

I bet your the one that bought that 2950 I had my eye on! LOL jk. There is one for 325 and free shipping with bezel, rail kit, and 2x Dual 3.2 processors, 8 GB ram.

Going to get a switch this pay check.

LinuxRacr

Looks like mine has 2 Intel Xenon 5150 dual-core 2.66Ghz processors (virtualization enabled), and DRAC5 card. It also has a PERC5 card. I'm hoping to be able to get some decent performance out of this one once I get 16 GB or ram, and decide which drives I'm going to use.

onesaint

vanquish23 wrote: »

You bring up a good point. Reloading the Array would just be more work than just installing a boot loader. I guess I will try the GRUB boot loader and see if that will work.

You might consider taking an image of the Win install, to CYA.

Just for a bit of GRUB overkill, have a look here.