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Vail RC installation

Question
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Having a dedicated HP Homeserver with no screen, keyboard, mouse or DVD drive how do I install Vail RC?
Thursday, February 3, 2011 8:41 PM
All replies
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Have a look at this blog article as well as this article on installing from USB
The procedure described in the article worked for VAIL preview, so I expect it to work for the new Windows Home Server Release Candidate also.
Still downloading do I did not have a chance to test this ...- Theo.
No home server like Home ServerThursday, February 3, 2011 10:41 PMModerator -
"Norskov" wrote in message news:0a50345e-423c-46e8-82e0-e9a23af225fe@communitybridge.codeplex.com...
Having a dedicated HP Homeserver with no screen, keyboard, mouse or DVD drive how do I install Vail RC?
======Does it have the connectors for same? If so, after you've written WHS Vail to DVD, strip down your desktop and plug everything into the server. Since I built my server, I put the DVD inside it, so I just unplug my monitor and the dongle for the wireless keyboard and mouse from my desktop and plug them into the server at the other end of the desk. Don't even have to move out of my chair.
Nancy Ward
Windows 8 BetaFerret
Please Don't Text and Drive
My Grand Kids May be in Your Path
Nancy WardThursday, February 3, 2011 10:47 PM -
Nancy - The HP Home Servers are headless. They do not have video out unless you use a debug board or made your own connector which can be found over at Mediasmartserver.net
http://www.tomontech.comFriday, February 4, 2011 12:49 AMModerator -
Nancy - The HP Home Servers are headless. They do not have video out unless you use a debug board or made your own connector which can be found over at Mediasmartserver.net
=================
Why am I not surprised?Nancy Ward
Windows 8 BetaFerret
Please Don't Text and Drive
My Grand Kids May be in Your Path
Nancy WardFriday, February 4, 2011 5:38 AM -
1. Will it support X64?
2. Does it have enough ram?
Personally I'd leave that HP as is. It works, it's built nicely for the ram and hardware that it has.
Friday, February 4, 2011 7:20 AM -
The procedure described in the article worked for VAIL preview, so I expect it to work for the new Windows Home Server Release Candidate also.
- Theo.Note to myself:
As I should know, never suggest somthing works unless tested it myself :-|
Looks like the unattended installation for VAIL RC has changed.
Will need to have a look at this.
- Theo.
No home server like Home ServerFriday, February 4, 2011 7:21 PMModerator -
1. Will it support X64?
Yes.
2. Does it have enough ram?
Only if you did the 2MB upgrade for the HP MediaSmart EX47X
My MediaSmart has been running VAIL prevew/refresh very smoothly.
Not sure about the current RC, but I plan to test it as soon as I figured out the headless/unattended install procedure.- Theo
No home server like Home ServerSaturday, February 5, 2011 3:29 PMModerator -
1. Will it support X64?
Yes.
2. Does it have enough ram?
Only if you did the 2MB upgrade for the HP MediaSmart EX47XMy MediaSmart has been running VAIL prevew/refresh very smoothly.
Not sure about the current RC, but I plan to test it as soon as I figured out the headless/unattended install procedure.
- Theo
No home server like Home ServerOK.
Turned out I just had problems running the unattended procedure in a VMWare environment (probably due to a known issue described in the release notes combined with VMWare USB virtualisation?). Also I noticed the installation fase is somewhat altered.Confirming: Wondows Home Server 2011 Release Candidate Install on the HP MediaSmart EX475.
I just installed and all seems well. Ready to test it.
Just for the sake of beeing complete, the procedure I used:- Create a bootable USB stick from the WHS RC installation DVD using the "Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool"
- Add a plain text file named cfg.ini to the root of the USB stick.
- Insert USB-Stick in the lower USB-port on the backside op the HP47x MediaSmart.
- Attach USB keyboard on the front USB-port.
Install one single unformatted system disk into the MediaSmart. - Switch On the system.
Start pressing F12 for approx 10..15 seconds (system goes into boot-device selction menue).
Press "arrow-down" 7 times.
Press Enter. - Wait for the system to reboot (2x)
- Wait some more (Wait for for ping response)
- Wait some more (upto 30 mins) until
Connect to the server through http://SERVER (Try http://{IP-address} if this fails) - Complete the installation process.
You can skip the license key if you want to go into a 30-day trial. - Connect a client (http://{servername}/connect or RDP to the server desktop using start->run->mstsc
- Theo.
BTW:
---8<---- cfg.ini --------------------- [WinPE] InstallSKU=SERVERHOMEPREMIUM ConfigDisk=1 CheckReqs=0 SystemPartitionSize=60 [InitialConfiguration] AcceptEula=true ServerName=SERVER PlainTextPassword=@password PasswordHint=word@pass Settings=All ---8<---------------------------------
No home server like Home ServerSunday, February 6, 2011 12:47 AMModerator