ProLaint DL380 + Server 2003: SmartStart will support this?

[Chris_899]

Hey everyone,
I've been passed along to me a DL380 G2 I think with 4 9.6Gb SCSI drives and dual PIII 933MhZ processors. Figured if I put a SATA PCI card in there and host 2 drives on it I can make a mail server out of it.
SmartStart 5.5 does allow me to get Windows 2000 server on it with the assistated install...I can't get it to work with a manual install though.
SmartStart 7.X won't support my old-skel server...figures...so how might I install Windows 2003 Server Std Edition on this box?
Please help...I've been messing with this for days now (o:

[Uwe Zessin]

I am pretty sure I have two DL380 G2 around that have been set up with a SmartStart 7.x running Windows 2003 EE, but the OS is on disk drives connected to the embedded SmartArray controller - I doubt that SmartStart 5.5 (how old is it anyway?) does understand a SATA card.

I am not really a Windows admin, but can you boot from the W2003 CD and supply it with a driver for your SATA card during installation?

[Chris_899]

I got 2000 Advanced loaded with the SmartStart 5.5 today and then loaded the 2003 disc. It stated that I couldn't update 2000 Advanced to 2003 Standard so it rebooted and then it gave me the change to boot from the CD...so I did. Once in Windows set up, I deleted the C: partition, but this time I left the small partition that SmartStart made to install it's own drivers on, then recreated a C: partition, formatted, and installed 2003. So now it's up and running and I've already used half on my hard-disk on the SCSIs. I sure hope the SATA PCI card works correctly...otherwise this server isn't worth much to me (o:

Thanks for your help

[Samnang]

Hi Chris;

I never done on this old generation but i have some experiences wiht DL360G2 that support with only Smart Start 5.4,
you can make a manual of installation;
-first you must booting the server with the smart start 5.5 then at the step of raid configuration you can configue it by manually then create any logical drive - save change finish and restart the server with booting from your 2003 bootable CD.
after done of OS installation you can insert the smart start 7.x to install the PSPs for update the the driver.

regard;
samnang