Advice on for Dell Poweredge 860 - Linux Base

[Novacom]

Hi !

I need some advice regarding the setup of a brand new server (Poweredge 860) that will be virtualized using vmware server. I need recommandations on a distro of choice for my hardware.

1. needs to be an open source distro like debian (not a fee based like RH ent. or Suse)
2. needs to support SMP processor and RAID 1 at boot.
3. Ideally Debian would be great, if anybody could fix my issues with kernel 2.6.19.1 (scsi not found, after reboot...)

Ultimatly, this server will host a VM server for ISPConfig (debian based) and a Windows 2003 web edition. So what is your recommandation for the base system ?

[Hans]

Maybe you can try Debian version 4 (Etch).
This version will be decrared as "stable"very soon.

Ubuntu has also a very good hardware recognition.

[Novacom]

Thanks Hans.

I was a bit unsure about passing to a "testing" system for production use but everything seem to run A1. I will start my VMWare Server installation now...

Do you know any other solution for running a Windows 2003 virtual server on a linux based server ?

Thanks again !

Francis

[Hans]

You can considder to follow this guide:

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_sarge_vmware_server_howto
(It is written for Sarge, but Probably it will not be very different for Etch.


If you do not need Windows 2003 as an OS, you also can have a look here:
http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_etch_openvz

[Novacom]

Thanks for your time Hans,

I'm in the start of the VMWare tutorial by Falko. I stumble at :

E: Couldn't find package kernel-headers-2.6.18-3-686

I was going to look for it on the CD, it does not seem to be available online...

(I had the same issue on my first try...)

Any hints ?

Thanks

Francis

[Novacom]

It seems like from version 2.6.12 upward, kernel-headers package is now refferred to as linux-headers...

I progressing ;)

ehehe

[falko]

It seems like from version 2.6.12 upward, kernel-headers package is now refferred to as linux-headers...

Yes, that's true. :)

[Novacom]

Hi !

I found that xlibs-dev is no longer available on Etch. I'm still looking for an alternative to make the VMware server installation ok.

I will try using x-dev and libx11-dev and pray for it to work :)

I will post my results.

Francis

[Novacom]

Hi folks, here are my results so far !

Took Hans advice, and used Etch to support my hardware, Dell PE 860 dual core Pentium D.

Then followed Falko's guide at :

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_sarge_vmware_server_howto

But modified these things :

1. At first, replace the kernel-headers by linux-headers in falko's long apt-get sequence, remove also xlibs-dev.
2. Apt-get install psmisc gcc libc6-dev

psmisc fixes missing killall command in etch
gcc wasn't installed on my etch
libc6-dev was needed to correct 'The VMware VmPerl Scripting API was not installed.'

3. Installed the vmware server...
4. Installed the vmware console...

Logged in the console ! That's it !

A Cold Beer goes to Hans and Falko :D


Francis

[martinfst]

I don't have the intention to start a flame discussion about preferred OS-ses, but I did your setup with Ubuntu 6.10 (Efty Edge) on a PowerEdge 850 and encountered almost zero problems. Using 3Ware hardware raid. But then again Ubuntu 6.10 and Debian Etch are closely related.

[Hans]

At the moment, they are close related indeed. :)

Nice to hear that it works very well on both distros!

[Toontje]

Can somebody post his /etc/apt/source.list?

Mine is:
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Etch_ - Official Snapshot amd64 Binary-1$

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Etch_ - Official Snapshot amd64 Binary-1$

deb http://ftp.surfnet.nl/os/Linux/distr/debian/ etch main
deb-src http://ftp.surfnet.nl/os/Linux/distr/debian/ etch main

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main


and I get the message that the package 'E: Couldn't find package linux-headers-2.6.17-2-amd64'

I installed this version: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/amd64/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso

Maybe I should us another image?

[falko]

Looks ok.

I guess the linux-headers has been replaced with a newer one.
What's the output of apt-cache search linux-headers?

[Toontje]

Hello Falko,

Thanks for the reply, but I changed to Ubunto 6.10 for AMD64 and now everything runs smooth.

No problem installing VMware:D