Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 on DELL PowerEdge T110 II

Struggled with Dell PowerEdge T110 II get it boot

Dell PowerEdge T110 has arrived on late afternoon at Tuesday, 15 April 2014 directory from Dell.  It has been placed an order at 25th March, and was schedule delivery on 2nd April.  So that it get about 2 weeks over due by rash orders before increase VAT rate in Japan.

Anyway, I have purchased this box without operating system.  I know purchase Windows Server OS from Dell is cheaper but it is just for initial cost.  Buy OS as license from Microsoft through distributor make more sense for moving license to another computer when retire current one, and/or Microsoft release new version of OS so that can be covered by SA (Software Assurance) package.

I thought, in my experience the installation steps should be strait forward.  However, I realize that PowerEdge wont boot from DELL’s OpenManage DVD.  I give up to use OpenManage DVD after 20 to 30 times trials, and switch direct install of Windows.  I just burn Windows 2012 R2 iso image to DVD on MacBook Pro using Disk Utility.   After several times of trials and error, finally boot process recognize DVD and lunch Windows setup procedure.

Summary is as following;

Using DELL BIOS hookup diagnostics, hardware diagnostic was OK. (including Optical CD/DVD drive)

Change boot process to UEFI from BIOS (it’s not affecting to go/stop issue though)

Press F11 in order to get boost sequence control menu, and select Optical CD/DVD device, and then hit return.

Immediately after it, Microsoft Windows setup show a message:

“Press any key to start install from CD/DVD”

This message only shows a second or two, and then go back to “No operating system installed on this computer” message.   So I have to keep eyes open and make sure hit any key when above message appeared.

When Windows setup started, still setup does not allow me to format disk and install due to I’ve changed to UEFI boot process.  Fall down to Window’s cmd.exe from setup.exe and change partition to GUID Partition Table (GPT).

And then, Windows setup start working as expected.