Dell Server Support: Windows Server 2012 Compatibility, Upgrades, RAID Controllers, Lecture notes of Logistics

Download Dell Server Support: Windows Server 2012 Compatibility, Upgrades, RAID Controllers and more Lecture notes Logistics in PDF only on Docsity! Ready to Migrate to Microsoft Windows Server 2012…? By Barun Chaudhary & Perumal Raja Abstract: Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft’s latest server operating system provides a wide spectrum of operating system features that takes the IT Infrastructure of an Organization to the next level. Dell as one of the leading hardware manufacturer is all set to enable this operating system on its wide range of products. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft has taken a big leap into innovation with Microsoft Windows Server 2012, the latest server operating system released by Microsoft. This transformation of Microsoft’s server operating system leads to a versatile Server and Cloud platform with key enhancements in areas including networking, storage, advanced security features, centralized server management, performance and reliability monitoring, virtualization and cloud computing. With these enhancements organizations can transform their IT Infrastructure into a more flexible, cost effective and versatile datacenter. This article describes Dell’s support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and other important considerations that should be known while upgrading your server from previous Microsoft Operating System to Microsoft Windows Server 2012. With the core objective of ensuring that Dell servers are ready to support this new operating system at the release, Dell has worked extensively with Microsoft during the development phase of this operating system. The focus was two-fold, first to ensure all the operating system features work seamlessly on our supported platforms and second to provide rich management experience with Dell’s OpenManage support for this operating system. Dell Server support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Dell supports Microsoft Windows Server 2012 on a wide array of Dell PowerEdge and Dell PowerEdge C server platforms across four server generations. Dell servers can be categorized under 2 support philosophies, listed below. Dell Qualified: Dell™ Engineering has successfully tested and validated the current and immediately preceding released operating system (OS) version on Dell PowerEdge™ Servers. Dell adheres to all published partner test plans to ensure OS compatibility and provides full technical support for the Dell hardware components running on the OS. Dell Qualified systems have Open Manage support. Dell Supported: Dell™ Engineering has tested this current operating system (OS) version on Dell PowerEdge Servers to ensure OS compatibility. While most OS features work as expected on this platform, some certification tests could not be completed successfully. These findings are documented at Dell.com/ostechsheets. Dell Supported systems may not have OpenManage support. Also updated drivers may not be available from Dell for these systems. Dell’s 11th and 12th generation of servers are classified under Dell Qualified category whereas Dell’s 9th and 10th generation of server are classified under Dell Supported category. The complete list of servers supported with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 is listed in table below. Note: You can find the minimum BIOS version required for these servers here. Dell Qualified PowerEdge Servers for Microsoft Windows Server 2012: 11th Generation Servers 12th Generation Servers PowerEdge R910 PowerEdge R820 PowerEdge R810 PowerEdge R720 PowerEdge R710 PowerEdge R720XD PowerEdge R610 PowerEdge R620 PowerEdge R510 PowerEdge R520 PowerEdge R410 PowerEdge R420 PowerEdge R310 PowerEdge R320 PowerEdge R210 II PowerEdge T620 PowerEdge R210 PowerEdge T420 PowerEdge R815 PowerEdge T320 PowerEdge R715 PowerEdge M820 PowerEdge R515 PowerEdge M620 PowerEdge R415 PowerEdge M520 PowerEdge T710 PowerEdge M420 PowerEdge T610 PowerEdge T410 PowerEdge T310 PowerEdge T110 II PowerEdge T110 PowerEdge M910 PowerEdge M710HD PowerEdge M710 PowerEdge M610x PowerEdge M610 PowerEdge M915 Table-1 : Dell Qualified PowerEdge Servers Dell Qualified PowerEdge C Servers for Microsoft Windows Server 2012: PowerEdge C Servers PowerEdge C8220 PowerEdge C6220 PowerEdge C6145 PowerEdge C6105 PowerEdge C6100 PowerEdge C5220 PowerEdge C2100 PowerEdge C1100 Table-2 : Dell Qualified PowerEdge C Servers Note: Dell PowerEdge C Servers are currently under test to get certified by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows Server 2012. Dell Supported PowerEdge Servers for Microsoft Windows Server 2012: 9th Generation Servers 10th Generation Servers PowerEdge 6950 PowerEdge R900 Figure-2 : Steps to Upgrade Dell Servers with Dell OpenManage Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Supported Upgrade Path Microsoft supports upgrading your server to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with SP2 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 between below mentioned editions. Upgrade From Upgrade To Windows Server 2008 with SP2- Standard Edition Windows Server 2012 - Standard or Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 with SP2- Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2012 - Standard or Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 with SP2- Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2012 - Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 with SP2- Web Edition Windows Server 2012 - Standard Edition Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1- Standard Edition Windows Server 2012 - Standard or Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1- Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2012 - Standard or Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1- Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2012 - Datacenter Edition Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1- Web Edition Windows Server 2012- Standard Edition Table-4 : Microsoft Supported Upgrade Paths With the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 release, Dell systems are shipped with a multilingual operating system media if the server is ordered with operating system installed from Dell. This new multilingual operating system media provides customers a single place holder to provide all Dell supported operating system languages; however Simplified and Traditional Chinese operating system image comes in a separate media. While upgrading or reinstalling your operating system using this multilingual media customer needs to boot from the media and on the very first screen they need to select the language of their choice as shown in Figure-3. The rest of the installation steps are same as normal Microsoft Windows Server 2012 installation steps. For detailed steps of how to install the operating system on Dell server please refer to Dell’s Installation Guide. Figure-3 : Language Selection Screen With the wide range of products in Dell portfolio, Dell is ready to provide a rich and advance customer experience with Microsoft Windows Server 2012. For a list of known issues and their workaround you can refer to Dell’s Important Information Guide and for installation steps you can refer to Dell’s Installation Guide. References:  Microsoft | Microsoft Windows Server 2012  Dell | Microsoft Windows Server 2012  Dell’s Early Adopters’ Guide for Microsoft Windows Server 2012  Dell’s Important Information Guide for Microsoft Windows Server 2012  Dell’s Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows Server 2012  Dell Documentation for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Barun Chaudhary is a software engineer on Dell Enterprise Operating System team, specializing in Virtualization and Networking technologies. Perumal Raja is a software engineer on Dell Enterprise Operating System team, specializing in Storage and Deployment technologies.