HP DL 380 G5 and Windows 7 or 8

[Amir Saeed]

Hello

I am buying HP DL 380 G5 for some of my application needs. My applications can run both on Windows 7 or 8. Can I install windows 7 or 8 on HP DL 380 G5. I know this may not be these best fit OS but would Windows 7 or 8 recognize all the drives...Thanks...

[TVVJ]

The server goes with either Smart Array P400 Controller or Smart Array E200 Controller. For installing Windows 7 or Windows 8, the driver for the Smart Array Controllers would be required for proper functioning.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 are not tested on the servers as they are not server operating system, but client operating system. Their ability to handle multiple processor sockets is very limited and as it is a client operating system, the driver support from a server operating system perspective is very limited.

These operating systems have not been tested on the server and hence one would not be able to find driver support in the server’s driver download page.

The operating system support for Windows server operating system is up to Windows Server 2008 R2. You may test installing the operating system, though it is not a recommended setup. You could try the following driver for Smart Array Controller while installing the operating, no guarantees though:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=0&prodSeriesId=1121516&prodNameId=3288134&swEnvOID=4064&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-6183b49e58374940ba61fa6b44

Regards,

Vijayasarathy

[DanRobinson]

Another good place to look is on the Software & Drivers page for the "WS460c G6" which is a Workstation Blade.

It has Windows 7 support and some of the common drivers between your Rackmount G5 and this Blade G6 should still work. Though you may have to skip the HP installer and just extract the contents and use Device manager to scan the extracted folder for the drivers.