OS Deployment

[Shiaprise]

So I recently purchased a Dell R710 with the following hardware:

• 2x X5560 2.80GHz Quad Core
• 64GB of DDr3 ECC ram
• 2x 300GB 10K 2.5" SAS drives
• Perc 6i integrated raid card

It came with Windows Server 2016 Standard Evaluation installed on the SAS drive. But I wanted to install the OS on an SSD, so I bought a Samsung 970 NVMe PCIe M.2 250GB as well as an PCIe card to M.2 adapter.

So my goal here is to install Windows Server 2016 Standard on the SSD. I purchased the windows key off of Bonanza and the seller sent me the key as well as a link for the download, 

(down.microsoft-oem.com/windows/en_windows_server_2016_x64_dvd_9327751.iso) So I burn that to a CD/DVD and try booting from that, it says boot failed. So I try attaching it to a USB, and that failed. I also tried using the CD/DVD as a USB one time then tried using it as a CD/DVD, neither worked. For the USB I tried both NTFS and Fat32 and neither worked. I also tried all of these both in the BIOS version and UEFI version of boot mode. I have run out of ideas so any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can't boot from a nvme drive on that board.

 

Your best option is to install a hypervisor on the system, then put the vm image on the ssd.

 

also thats not a legit key from those sites, its not legit unless your paying about 400 usd or more.

[Mikensan]

Check if your server came with IPMI, in the rear you should see a lonely ethernet port with a wrench or "idrac" written just beneath it. If you do, then connect it to your network - fire the server up and hit whatever key it is for idrac/ipmi and configure it. Throw it in chrome/firefox/whatever and mount your ISO via console.

 

How did you burn the ISO to disk, drag and drop or double clicking it and letting windows extract it to a CD? Can another computer boot from the CD you made?

How did you put the files on USB, using win32diskimager / drag and drop / rufus / easy2boot?

[Shiaprise]

On 6/20/2018 at 2:36 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can't boot from a nvme drive on that board.

 

Your best option is to install a hypervisor on the system, then put the vm image on the ssd.

 

also thats not a legit key from those sites, its not legit unless your paying about 400 usd or more.

What's the reason that you aren't able to boot from an nvme on that board? Is there anyway I can make it work? Also I've purchased many keys from that website and they all have been authentic.

[Electronics Wizardy]

14 minutes ago, Shiaprise said:

What's the reason that you aren't able to boot from an nvme on that board? Is there anyway I can make it work? Also I've purchased many keys from that website and they all have been authentic.

The bios doesn't support loading the bootloader from a nvme drive. Nothing you can do to boot from nvme.

 

But you can put the boot loader on another drive, like a usb stick. But really with a r710 you should just run a hypervisor on it.

 

No they aren't legit keys. They work, but there normally stolen vl keys and can get de activated over time and the money doesn't go to microsoft. Might as well pirate it as this point as Microsoft won't get any money either way.

[NelizMastr]

NVMe boot on a server wasn't a thing until the Skylake generation servers (~2016 onwards), which yours isn't. The R710 uses Nehalem and Westmere CPUs from 2008 and 2009, way too old for today's creature comforts. Just get some more caddies and put 2,5" SSDs or SAS drives in there.