Well I decided to learn a bit about servers so I went out to GSA and found a pair and managed to win them for $186.
Said all that to know the background. When I booted, it took a while to get through the 106G of ECC RAM and then would not boot to a system. Downloaded and burned a Knoppix and an Ubuntu DVD to try to look at the HDs. Neither would see them and the Knoppix (from their site) would not even finish loading. The standard Ubuntu AMD64 Desktop would not see the full RAM past 64G on one CPU and 'file system' would not let me look at the hard drives at all. The server Ubuntu would not load a workspace to view the HDs but said it could install. Did not because I'm trying to get Win08 Server Running.
Some reading at technet.microsoft seems to indicate there is a DVD or two required for initialization (of course none came from gov because I didn't know enough to ask for them). I went to MS to try to see if there is a download and there is an ISO but it requires installation of MS download manager. Experience in the past shows this causes major problems with the system you're using for the download (setting aside MS's normal activities with WLive), so I didn't.
I told you all that to say this. I'm thinking my ignorance level exceeds the basic requirements for experimentation.
a) What online courses do you recommend to start learning WinServer08 hardware and O/S? I don't mind paying for them.
b) Where would I get the DVD or ISO for Win Server 08 R2 1-4CPU 5Cit? The government did mention 'the subscription has run out. you do realize that?' so I'm guessing I have to pay for something there too. There's copies on ebay for 399. Mostly I just want to boot or know it won't boot and can install another server o/s.
COMPUTER SERVER DELL POWEREDGE R710 INTEL XEON
Item Description: Pictures are shown with hard drives installed in units, however, they have been removed!!!
PE R710 with Chassis for Up to 8, 2.5-Inch Hard Drives (224-8461)
PowerEdge R710 Shipping (330-4124) 96GB Memory (12x8GB), 1333MHz Dual Ranked RDIMMs for 2 Procs,
Optimized (317-5344) Embedded Broadcom, GB Ethernet NICS with TOE (430-1764) Embedded Broadcom, GB Ethernet NICS with TOE and ISCSI Offload Enabled (430-2970)
Dual Intel Xeon X5680, 3.33Ghz, 12M Cache, Turbo, HT, 1333MHz Max Mem (317-4104) PowerEdge R710 Heat Sinks for 2 Processors (317-1213) PERC H700 Integrated RAID Controller, 1GB NV Cache, x8 (342-1615) Power Saving BIOS Setting (330-3491) Internal SD Module with 1GB SD Card (341-8738) Intel Gigabit ET NIC, Quad Port, Copper, PCIe-4 (430-0657) iDRAC6 Enterprise (467-8648) DVD ROM, SATA, INTERNAL (313-9092) Riser with 2 PCIe x8 + 2 PCIe x4 Slot (320-7886) Dual High Output Power Supply Redundant, 870W (330-3475). CONDITION UNKNOWN, REPAIRS MAY BE REQUIRED, INSPECTION ENCOURAGED, SOLD AS IS.
Sounded good until I shipped one of them to me and it was $350 for shipping and GSA lied, it had 2.4GHz Xeons instead of 3.3. Some shopping found I could get a 2.4GHz unopened for 699 from a kentucky recycler on eBay with 6TB of HD space and all the parts. Oh well. Item Description: Pictures are shown with hard drives installed in units, however, they have been removed!!!
PE R710 with Chassis for Up to 8, 2.5-Inch Hard Drives (224-8461)
PowerEdge R710 Shipping (330-4124) 96GB Memory (12x8GB), 1333MHz Dual Ranked RDIMMs for 2 Procs,
Optimized (317-5344) Embedded Broadcom, GB Ethernet NICS with TOE (430-1764) Embedded Broadcom, GB Ethernet NICS with TOE and ISCSI Offload Enabled (430-2970)
Dual Intel Xeon X5680, 3.33Ghz, 12M Cache, Turbo, HT, 1333MHz Max Mem (317-4104) PowerEdge R710 Heat Sinks for 2 Processors (317-1213) PERC H700 Integrated RAID Controller, 1GB NV Cache, x8 (342-1615) Power Saving BIOS Setting (330-3491) Internal SD Module with 1GB SD Card (341-8738) Intel Gigabit ET NIC, Quad Port, Copper, PCIe-4 (430-0657) iDRAC6 Enterprise (467-8648) DVD ROM, SATA, INTERNAL (313-9092) Riser with 2 PCIe x8 + 2 PCIe x4 Slot (320-7886) Dual High Output Power Supply Redundant, 870W (330-3475). CONDITION UNKNOWN, REPAIRS MAY BE REQUIRED, INSPECTION ENCOURAGED, SOLD AS IS.
Said all that to know the background. When I booted, it took a while to get through the 106G of ECC RAM and then would not boot to a system. Downloaded and burned a Knoppix and an Ubuntu DVD to try to look at the HDs. Neither would see them and the Knoppix (from their site) would not even finish loading. The standard Ubuntu AMD64 Desktop would not see the full RAM past 64G on one CPU and 'file system' would not let me look at the hard drives at all. The server Ubuntu would not load a workspace to view the HDs but said it could install. Did not because I'm trying to get Win08 Server Running.
Some reading at technet.microsoft seems to indicate there is a DVD or two required for initialization (of course none came from gov because I didn't know enough to ask for them). I went to MS to try to see if there is a download and there is an ISO but it requires installation of MS download manager. Experience in the past shows this causes major problems with the system you're using for the download (setting aside MS's normal activities with WLive), so I didn't.
I told you all that to say this. I'm thinking my ignorance level exceeds the basic requirements for experimentation.
a) What online courses do you recommend to start learning WinServer08 hardware and O/S? I don't mind paying for them.
b) Where would I get the DVD or ISO for Win Server 08 R2 1-4CPU 5Cit? The government did mention 'the subscription has run out. you do realize that?' so I'm guessing I have to pay for something there too. There's copies on ebay for 399. Mostly I just want to boot or know it won't boot and can install another server o/s.