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Chapter 2 Installation and Setup
2.7 Installing the Operating System
An operating system (OS) must be installed on each blade module. Blades with Microsoft
Windows OS and blades with Linux OS can both occupy and operate within the same blade
enclosure. Refer to the SuperMicro web site for a complete list of supported operating systems.
There are several methods of installing an OS to the blade modules.
Installing with an External USB CD-ROM Drive
Note
: Installing the OS from an external CD-ROM drive may take several hours to complete.
1.
Connect an SUV cable (Serial port/USB port/Video port cable) to the KVM connector on
the front of the blade module. You will then need to attach a USB hub to the USB port
on this cable to provide multiple USB ports.
2. Connect the external CD-ROM drive, a USB keyboard and a mouse to the USB hub.
You will also need to connect a monitor to the video connector on the SUV cable. Turn
on the blade module.
3. Insert the CD containing the OS into the CD-ROM drive.
4. Follow the prompts to begin the installation.
Installing by using PXE Boot
(common method)
Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is used to boot a computer over a network. To install
the OS via PXE, the following conditions must be met:
•
The PXE BOOT option in BIOS must be enabled.
•
A PXE server has been configured (this can be another blade in the system).
•
The PXE server must be connected over a network to the blade to be booted.
•
The blade has only non-partitioned, unformatted hard drives installed and no bootable
devices attached to it.
Once these conditions are met, make sure the PXE server is running. Then turn on the blade
on which you wish to boot or install the OS. The BIOS in the blade will look at all bootable
devices and finding none, will connect to the PXE server to begin the boot/install.
Installing by using Virtual Media (Drive Redirection)
You can install the OS via Virtual Media through either the IPMIview (Java based client utility),
SuperBladeTool or the Web-based Management Utility. With this method, the OS is installed
from an ISO image that resides on another system/blade.
Refer to the manuals on your SuperBlade CD-ROM for further details on the Virtual Media
(CD-ROM or Drive Redirection) sections of these two utility programs.