Finally got it up and running last week. What a nightmare.
The first problem dealt with not having a copy of Windows Server 2003 x64. I got a copy, but once I finally got the boot disc wouldn’t locate any of the logical volumes to install itself on. I figured this was one of those circumstances where I’d need a third-party SCSI or RAID driver. Sure enough, I had to call Dell, figuring they could help me out. They sure did. Turns out the PowerEdge I was shipped had an optical drive of the CD-ROM variety. That’s fine, except the SCSI and RAID drivers I needed, which were not located on the support.dell.com website, were shipped from Dell on a DVD-ROM disc. The Dell tech was super helpful and helped me figure this problem out. The workaround involved a desktop with an ISO CD burning program and a CD-R/W DVD-ROM drive. Thank god I just happened to have one of those lying around.
So, I got the ISO off the DVD, burned it to a CD, then took that CD and the Windows install disc back to the server. I had to boot off the driver disc, which would prepare an install config. I then had to insert the Windows disc. The machine rebooted itself and began the install, which took about half an hour. Once that was complete it worked great. Nice and fast. The only problem was that this server was destined to be part of our existing Exchange 2003 topology.
On 64-bit platforms the only version of Exchange you can run is 2007. Looks like I’m going to have to upgrade. I guess I’ll have another article to write once that is done.
QuantumTom 