詠鉌のIT

Many customer called and ask is there anyway to downgrade from Windows Server 2008 to Windows Server 2003. Hereby I would like to say : "..It can be done!"

For Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Operating System, it have two different types of downgrade options:
    - Downgrade license (bundle with Windows Server 2008)
      When Windows Server 2008 launched for one quarter, Dell start not to upsell Windows Server 2003. Therefore, the Sales team introduce Windows Server 2008 with Downgrade license to Windows Server 2003. During the installation, the interface slightly different with the usual one, you will see extra options called: "Downgrade" is available to chose.

    - Downgrade media
      If your OEM Windows Server 2008 doesn't come with the downgradeable license (due to price different), you may contact your Sales Account Manager to request a Downgrade Media from Microsoft. Please note that this is not a new license, and it is chargeable.

Please refers to the below for further info from Microsoft.

From an OEM. From now until March 31, 2011, some OEMs may support fulfilling Windows Server 2003 R2 downgrades (includes Windows Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems, and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for Itanium-based Systems) to their customers. There are several options available. Contact your OEM to determine if it supports downgrade fulfillment. Please note that downgrade media is not a new license for Windows Server. It only enables a customer to install, activate and run an earlier version of Windows Server under a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 license.

• OEMs may provide their existing Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 customers one copy of downgrade Windows Server 2003 R2 media only if their customer requests it.

Some OEMs have pre-activated their software. In these cases, a customer would not need a product key or to activate over the internet or via the phone.For Windows Server 2008 R2 downgrade requests, end customers should fulfill downgrade requests through the Windows Server Downgrade Fulfillment site.

A very common issue for server to encounter the P.O.S.T (Power-on Self Test) error as below:

Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the system setup program

Two days ago, a Taiwan customer called and complaint that he can't update the MD3200's NVSRAM to latest, due to Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) is not showing proper Chinese words, and return an error: NullPointerException, when you wish to update the NVSRAM.

I use almost half a day to troubleshoot/gather relevant info from customer for analysis. Answer derive after 2-3 hours when I found one relevant article from our Knowledge-Base.

Cause:
This is the installer issue with the version A00 image with Spanish and Chinese OS language packages. This image doesn't impact any other language besides the two mentioned above.

Workaround:
1. For Windows:
- Ensure the Modular Disk Storage Manager application is closed
- Disable the Modular Disk Storage Manager Event Monitor service if it is started (through Windows services - Start->Run->services.msc)
- Navigate to the client directory under the MD Storage Manager installation directory (Default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\MD Storage Software\MD      Storage Manager\client)
- Rename the SMclient.jar file to SMclient.orig.jar
- Copy  the provided SMclient-10.70.x6.06.jar file to SMclient.jar
- Re-enable the Modular Disk Storage Manager Event Monitor service (through Windows services)

2. For Linux
- Ensure the Modular Disk Storage Manager application is closed
- Navigate to the client directory under the MD Storage Manager installation directory (Default: /opt/dell/mdstoragesoftware/mdstoragemanager/client)
- Rename the SMclient.jar file to SMclient.orig.jar
- Copy  the provided SMclient-10.70.x6.06.jar file to SMclient.jar

In summary, if your OS language is either Chinese or Spanish, just ensure you download/install the MDSM from version A01 and above.

You may get the latest MDSM A04 from the link below:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=my&cs=mybsd1&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R295070&SystemID=PWV_MD3200&servicetag=&os=WS8R2&osl=en&deviceid=22520&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=52&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=441701

After the previous post: How to install Microsoft Hyper-V in Dell 11th Generation server? , I received few enquiry on where to download Dell System Management Tools and Documentation (SMTD).


Please follow the steps below to prepare the SMTD v6.4:

1. Download both ISO from below:

Image 1: OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001 Image 2: OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 

copy /b OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001+OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

cat OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001 OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 > OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

Yesterday, a visitor named Syedz inquiry how to install Hyper-V in R710. I thought I can reply him through email, but I didn't receive any email afterwards. In case you re-visit my site, here is the steps you required.

Steps

1. Install your Windows Server 2008 with Dell System Management Tools & Documentation
2. After that, boot with the Windows Server 2008 media.
3. In the Setup Wizard, click the language you want to use during the installation.
4. Next, select the language to be installed, along with the time and currency formats and the keyboard layour, and then click Next.
5. Click Install Now, and then accept the license terms
6. In the next screen, specify the location where you wan Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 to be installed, and then click Next.
7. During the installation, server will restart several times. When the installation is complete, you will prompt for Administrator account setup. Click Ok.
8. Give a strong password for the Administrator account, confirm, then press ENTER.
9. When you see the message "Your password has been changed", click Ok.

An India customer, report a fault for his EMC's AX100 with dual Storage Processor. He sent me the SPCollect, found that there is error for SPB, and Power Supply B. Due to this storage contained all critical information for his company, I have to arrange the onsite service with 2 standby parts: Storage Processor, and Power Supply.

Few hours later, onsite engineer feedback, and the call routed to me. After few checking with engineer, we confirmed that issue caused by human error, and there isn't any hardware fault from the AX100 when engineer reach site.

Cause:
Customer did accidentally disconnect the power cord to Power Supply B, and cause SPB down.

The behavior of the power supply as below:

1. A failed power supply prevents operation of a single-processor AX-series
2. On a dual-processor AX100, a failed power supply will power down the associated storage processor
3. On a dual-processor AX150 or an AX150SC with two power supplies, a failed power supply will cause the system to run in degraded mode.

Recently I've done some review to few hard disk which configured with hardware RAID related cases, found that most of the hard disk replacement that lead to OS 'crash' is due to the server did gone through ChkDsk, either trigger by user or start automatically.
I do not know why until I found this article with the below statements:

"....Chkdsk is not RAID-aware. Its algorithms only work in the simplest cases. In general, it must be avoided. If chkdsk attempts to repair one or more member disks, the RAID data patterns will be destroyed, usually beyond recovery."

If you feel sick or lazy to call up Dell Technical Support's toll-free number, wait in the queue just to check your system's warranty, you can just click on the link below, then key-in the Service Tag, and you will get the warranty status within a second:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/details?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~ck=anavml

Warranty contracts for your PowerEdge [model] have expired or will expire within 90 days.

Ensure your system is covered by contacting a Dell Extended Services Sales Agent at [toll-free for your region]

Dell PowerEdge R805, is one of the AMD-based server from Dell. However, not much customer own one, and this may due to its supported platform quite different if compared with Intel-based server. Few days ago, one India customer called, and throw a lots of question to me before I can response to him:

"..I checked your documentation, found that this server should support Memory Sparing, but I just can't find the option from BIOS.."

Server doesn't fully populated with Memory.

• System is populated with full Memory module
• F2 System BIOS -> Memory Information -> Node Interleaving -> Disabled
• DIMMs must be paired as spares also

Didn't expect Microsoft do have this kind of sharing at their site: Free resume template for download. For those who need to update their resume, especially the graduates, this is a very good example to come out with a simple, informative resume.

Hurry, grab one of it from Microsoft today! It is FREE.... :-)

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Yesterday, I were surprised by a Singapore customer with the inquiry as below:

"...I suspect is your RAID card limitation to detect the full size of my 3TB SATA Hard Disk..."

Dell PERC H700 and H800 – The following firmware revision (or later) must be applied on the Storage Controller Cards to obtain support for >2 TB drives. The firmware release numbers and revisions are below:  

For SAS drives >2TB: 7.1 FW A02/12.3.0-0032 

R269683 – H800; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H800-ADAPTER_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269684 – H700I: A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-INTEGRATED_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269685 – H700A; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-ADAPTER_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269686 – H700M; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-MODULAR_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link)

SATA Support – SATA drives will be supported in Q1, 2011.


The above mentioned releases of firmware can be downloaded from http://ftp.us.dell.com/sas-raid/.

Dell H200 – Support is planned for the H200 in 2011

Due to there are too many parts for Dell OpenManage Server Administrator, so I divide it into several parts to cover the full OMSA introduction.


What is Dell OpenManage Server Administrator?
Server Administrator provides a comprehensive, one-to-one systems management solution in two ways: from an integrated, Web browser-based graphical user interface (GUI) and from a command line interface (CLI) through the operating system. Server Administrator is designed for system administrators to manage systems locally and remotely on a network. Server Administrator allows system administrators to focus on managing their entire network by providing comprehensive one-to-one systems management.


**Reference from: http://supportapj.dell.com/support/edocs/SOFTWARE/svradmin/5.3/en/ug/html/intro.htm#wp1039152

Interface for version 6.4 is a little bit different from the legacy one, but the steps to log in are similar.

Download URL from Dell.com
Windows x64 OMSA 6.4 Download here
Windows x86 OMSA 6.4 Download here


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Double-click the icon named: "Server Administrator", and you'll see the browser open as below: