To install your Windows Server operating system, perform the following:
Ensure that the operating system installation media image (.iso or .img) is available from the Fabric Management Platform. See Making Operating System Installation Media Image Available for Installation for more information.
Ensure the RAID controller is configured with the desired LUNs. See Modifying RAID Configuration of the NEPP for more information.
For Windows Server 2008 R2, obtain the drivers needed for accessing the RAID controller. See Obtaining and Installing Drivers and Firmware for more information.
Copy the extracted files to the Fabric Management Platform.
Obtain the drivers for the Intel network interfaces and the Mellanox InfiniBand interfaces. See Obtaining and Installing Drivers and Firmware for more information on downloading drivers.
Copy the files to the Fabric Management Platform.
Verify that the drivers you obtained are collected in a single folder on the Fabric Management Platform, and nothing else is in the folder.
Note: The folder and its contents are mounted as an image later—additional files will result in unnecessarily large virtual media.
From the partition image console, click the Virtual Media menu, and then select Create Image.
The Virtual Media – Create Image from Folder dialog box appears.
For the source folder, click Browse, navigate to the folder on the Fabric Management Platform containing all your downloaded drivers, and then click Open.
Note: Only the folder name is displayed; contents of the folder are not displayed.
The name of the image appears in the Source Folder field of the Virtual Media – Create Image from Folder dialog box.
In the Image File Name field, specify the location for the new image file.
Click Create Image.
An image file is created in the specified location.
From the partition image console, click the Virtual Media menu. If virtual media is not already connected, select Connect Virtual Media.
Click the Virtual Media menu again, and then select Map Removable Disk.
The Virtual Media – Map Removable Disk dialog box appears.
Specify the name of the image file created in step 9, and then click Map Device.
From the partition image console, click the Next Boot menu, and then click Virtual CD/DVD/ISO.
From the partition image console, click the Power menu, click one of the following, and then click Yes:
Power On System if the server is currently powered off.
Reset System if the server is currently powered on.
Notes:
Be aware that in the next step you will only have a few seconds to press a key to boot from the installation media image. The prompt to boot from CD or DVD appears after the message “Scanning for devices. Please wait, this may take several minutes... .” If you do not press a key in time, wait for the server to finish booting, and then repeat this step.
If you see the message “Loading files…” and a progress bar showing files being loaded from the CD, skip to step 16.
When the server boots and the message “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” appears, quickly press any key to start the server from the installation media image.
Files are copied from the installation media image. This process may take a few minutes.
In the Windows Server setup window, select the following:
From the Language to install list, select English (or other preference).
From the Time and currency format list, select English (United States) (or other preference).
From the Keyboard or input method list, select US (or other preference).
Click Next.
Click Install Now.
If prompted, enter the product key supplied with Windows Server to activate your installation.
Select the version of Windows Server you want to install and click Next.
Scroll down and read the license agreement.
Select I accept the license terms and click Next.
Select Custom.
For Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, skip to the next step.
For Windows Server 2008 R2, do the following:
Click Load Driver in the Windows Server 2008 R2 setup window.
The Load Driver dialog box opens.
Click Browse, navigate to the folder containing the drivers for your RAID controller, and then click OK.
Note: The folder appears on a volume with the same name as the folder containing all your downloaded drivers.
Select the PERC H710 driver, and then click Next.
When Windows Server setup window displays all available hard disk space, select one of the following options to choose or create a disk drive partition to install the operating system:
Allow Setup to create a partition
Use this option to specify the entire hard disk as one disk drive partition: Select the unallocated space of the hard disk where you want to install the operating system, and then click Next.
Create a partition
Use this option to specify a portion of the hard disk as a disk drive partition: Select the unallocated space of the hard disk where you want to install the operating system, click Drive options (advanced), click New, type in the amount of space (in MB) when prompted to indicate the amount of space to allocate, click Apply, and then click Next.
Delete a partition
Use this option to delete an existing disk drive partition before creating a disk drive partition using one of the methods described previously.
The software formats the selected disk drive partition and copies applicable files to the disk drive partition. This process takes several minutes. When the installation is complete, the server restarts automatically and a prompt to change the administrator password appears.
Enter the new password for the administrator account, and then log on.
A configuration wizard window appears.
Step through the configuration wizard for setting up naming and basic networking.
Use the Microsoft Server Roles and Features functions to set up the server for your specific needs.
If applicable, use the product key supplied with Windows Server to activate your installation.