Win Server 2008 R2

[TRG1HMR]

Good evening all! I have an issue I need help with please.
I have a Gigabyte Ga-Z97-SLI motherboard and I am running Win Server 2008 R2 64-bit on it and it works very well! I added an extra NIC Card for redundancy. The NIC Card I added works great! The issue is the set-up CD for the motherboard is not compatible with WS 2008 R2. The specs on the motherboard reads that the on-board LAN is an Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit). I cannot find a driver for the on-board LAN. I have tried several drivers and on a couple of them that I tried, the driver cause a BSOD. So I have to be really cautious on what I try. Is there anyone that has had an issue finding LAN drivers for the motherboard and /or the OS (WS 2008 R2)? Please help if you can. I would also like to hear some troubleshooting methods on this issue as well. Thank you for your time
Mel

 

[gbhall]

You could try a third-party 'systems information' package. Piriform Speccy is a good example, but there are many. You would just install, note the results and uninstall again. Usually no residue remains, and the packages are free.

 

[TRG1HMR]

Good Morning! Thanks you so much for getting back to me on this!
I have the Piriform Speccy Pro Package. I have been over all of it, including the Network section. I just don't understand. I wanted to try a different approach so I installed Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials x64 on to another computer. I have 4 Servers and 11 machines set up at my SOHO. I actually set it up on a machine that I am running VirtualBox. I installed it as a virtual PC just in case any issues were to arise. I was able to get drivers for everything just fine. So I set Up WS 2008 R2 as a virtual machine and again, was able to get all drivers. So, back to the Gigabyte MB, I copy/paste drivers from the virtual machine to PC running WS 2008. It did not work, it returned a "this driver is incompatible with this system." I'm still lost here. Thank you so much for your reply! I was beginning to think this was one of these sites that who only listens and responds to their "PC Buds". Thanks Again, Mel.

 

[gbhall]

Looks like a problem with the gigabyte motherboard, yes? As far as I understand it, your server works fine with an add-on network card, just will not support the on-board one. In your position you might as well shrug your shoulders I suspect.

Virtual servers are the way to go in my opinion. The host server could be vmware ESX, so redundancy could come from having several windows servers running on one or two powerful vmware hypervisor servers. To be honest though, the last time I looked into the whole server-client picture, it seemed to me everything would have to move to the cloud sooner or later.

vmware is just one possible option, ask a specialist. I am not a network specialist, just an old bloke who has been in IT for 40+ years (now long retired, my last employer keeps bribing me to keep answering questions).

It might even be worthwhile poking about on a vmware support forum, since many vmware servers support windows server clients. On the other hand, for all I know, vmware may be dead in the water today. I seem to remember Dell was trying to buy them early this year.

btw you might do better in the networking forum, except even there it is still not much about servers. This one (windows) has very rarely attracted attention from people running servers. It is more for desktops, laptops and they are all moving to tablets anyway. It is much, much quieter over the last 12 months.