Reinstallation with RDP 3.50 on C-class 460c

[Jeff Souter]

Help

I installed X64 version of Server 2003 onto one of my blades, but i have since found i need the 32bit version.
I have deleted the computer from the database and PXE booted back to where i can deploy a 32bit job.
I drop a server 2003 std job onto the server and all looks well until after a couple of reboots goes back to the orignal install.
How can i wipe this server and start again??

Thanks

Jeff

[pasquino bocci_1]

Hi,

In the RDP console , right click on the computer and get his ID, then go to the /lib/osconfig/wxx and delete the txt file corresponding to the id of the blade.

Pasquino

[Jeff Souter]

Thx i will go and try that :)

[Jeff Souter]

Still no good Pasquino :(
I did what you said removed the txt files but still i can't replace the OS installed.
Any other ideas?

Thanks
Jeff

[Adrian Clint]

Jeff,

This has worked in similar situations before:

Copy the standard job to a new one.

In this new Job remove all the tasks in front of task to deploy the 1st image.

(So no system config tasks, reboots or array config tasks)

Manually reboot and manually press F12 to PXE boot in iLO.

Now you should be able to see the OS being replaced with a new image.

[pasquino bocci_1]

Hi, Try to erase the raid configuration pressing f8 dusring post, then cancel the blsade frpm the RDP console.
Pasquino

[Gordon Leonard]

If you delete a server from the console and it checks back in it should have a new ID number. Since you where able to have the server check back in (and I assume wait for a job) and start the install process again. After a few reboots you say it returns to a x64 install. Are you saying if you look at the job task it will change from "Deploy...x86" to "Deploy...x64"? I'm kind of wondering if during the RDP install that the wrong CD was provided during the copy process - thus you have two sets of Win x64. Have you deployed x86 to any other blades?

[Jeff Souter]

Hi All thx for the responses i will try them out asap.

Pasquino i have boot from san not from internal discs would this make any difference to the internal raid?

Thanks

[pasquino bocci_1]

Hi,

If you are able to boot from the san, I think everything is ok, by the way, do you have internals disks? If yes, try to disable the internal controller.

One thing you could do is to cancel and recreate the LUN you boot from.
If you can get out of this strange situation, try to boot from the W2k3 CD using the ILO virtual media to see what happens. Another thing is to check if you have only 1 and just 1 path enabled to your LUN. If you have more than 1 path, everything can happens.
cheers.
Pasquino

[Jeff Souter]

Hi All

One of the above fixed my problem not sure which one, but i did disable the onboard controller and remove the tasks from the job... either one sorted it for me.

By the way what exactly to the system config and and array tasks do before the deployment?

Ta
Jeff

[Adrian Clint]

Jeff,

The deploy array task is really only the one needed. The default task sends a "blank" array configuration script file to the array controller. From what I understand when the array controller receives a blank file it decides to configure as RAID1 if it has 2 drives and RAID 5 if more than two. As you already have an OS on the server you must have already deployed an array config so no need to do it again when trying to fix this problem.

If you do not send this task to a new server with no array config then the image task fails as it sees no disk.

The deployment of the two system config tasks is only required when you want to change BIOS configurations. If you don't want to do this via RDP then you can remove both of these tasks and the reboot after the first one.

In your case it might be a good idea to capture the system config from a non-san boot blade and a san boot one. Then you can deploy these system configs as appropriate.

From what I can figure out there are two system config tasks as in the first one you should add any changes that affect the hardware config required (thats why there is a reboot) and the second is for minor tweaks you might want if you change OS's on this hardware. I dont know if this is explained well in the latest courses as I did my RDP courses at version 1.5.

[Jeff Souter]

Thanks Adrian

Better understood now :)