I came across a Dell PowerVault

DASH::::.Article by kvmanii 12/**/2009

This is a little write up about how to flash the bios on a Dell PowerVault 745n server with the BIOS of Dell PowerEdge 750 server. The Dell PowerVault 745n server is highly proprietary and you could only re-install the Dell PowerVault NAS Windows Storage Server 2003, If you wanted to put your own OS on the server you would need access to onboard floppy, CD rom, USB- limited to 64MB, or SATA. All of these features are disabled by the Dell PowerVault BIOS and it will only allow for a 64MB Flash drive. The Solution both the Dell PowerVault 745n and Dell PowerEdge 750 have the same motherboard Flashing the BIOS for said intended purpose will determine the roll of the server “storage server NAS or an actual server” the Freedom of the hardware thinking it was a Dell PowerEdge 750 is that the on board IDE, USB, and SATA Channels now allow the device to “work” when it is plugged in and you have the freedom to put your own OS on the device and use it for “your” intended purpose…

I came across a Dell PowerVault 745n I was very excited to use this server as a gaming server. I found that Windows Storage Server 2003 was not the best OS to use for application. I decide to put a lighter weight OS on the server for better performance. I soon discovered that putting a new OS on this thing was a daunting task. After some research I discovered that the Dell PowerVault 745n BIOS disables the floppy, CD-ROM, and onboard SATA ports. I found on a Blog http://www.tmk.com/blog/?p=4 by Terry Kennedy that the Dell PowerVault 745n uses the exact same mother board as the Dell PowerEdge 750.

Terry Discribes Using a small 2GB drive on an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card, I didn’t have such a card or drive and I wasn’t willing to spend any money coming to a solution to flash the BIOS. So this is what I did…

One method of flashing the BIOS of a Dell PowerVault 745n to allow floppy, CD-ROM, and onboard SATA ports is to hack the software. Below this picture shows the Dell power edge 750 BIOS image files.

Because there is a separate AUTOEXEC.BAT file you will have to create a new directory on the USB 64MB key that came with the Dell Powervault 745n. If you do not have a 64MB you will have to purchase one or create a 64MB partition ( I tried various Flash Drives and had no success getting the “Client system” to unpack the files necessary on the Flash Drive to reinstall the Dell Powervault OS. The client machine does a type of integrity check and must be on a 64MB volume)

So fist lets start by Unpacking the Dell Power Edge 750 BIOS Flash Floppy image to our first USB Flash Drive. You will need a computer with a Floppy Drive, a Floppy Disk, a USB Drive at least 8MBs, and make sure the computer has USB ports. Go to Dell.com and get the BIOS Image for Dell Power Edge 750 the file is called PE750-BIOSA06.exe now run the file with a Floppy inserted in the A: drive once the Bootable Floppy has been created copy all files to the 8 MB “or greater size” USB Flash Drive ( I used a 2GB Flash Drive the reason I say at the least 8MB because you can use almost any old USB Flash drive you have laying around the size isn’t so much important with this step of the process)

Now that the Floppy unpacked files required for Boot are on the USB drive set it aside we will be preparing our second USB Drive the 64MB USB Flash Drive. Insert the Dell PowerVault 745n CD in the computer if you do not have this cd I believe you can download the Client Console from Dells Website or create the USB image from the PowerVault software on the Dell PowerVault 745n. run through the steps to create the USB Boot Flash Drive this drives original intentions is to pull the installation across the network. The unpacked image should look like this.

Now we need to insert the other USB Drive with the BIOS for the Dell PowerEdge 750 in the same computer as the installation USB Flash Drive put them side by side now lets create a new directory on the 64MB Key the unpacked files should come to around 45MB total now we need to add the Flash BIOS Tools to the image.

Now copy all the Flash image tools from the Dell PowerEdge 750 into the 750bios directory we created.

Now it is time to configure the Dell PowerVault 745n to boot to the USB Drive.

During the boot process, press <F2> when “F2=Setup” displays on the screen (at the “Dell” splash screen just before POST starts).

In the BIOS setup screen, select Boot Sequence and press <Enter>.

Ensure that Hard drive C is first in the list and press <Esc> to exit the Boot Sequence menu.

Select Hard-Disk Drive Sequence and press <Enter>.

Ensure that Hard-disk-emulated USB flash drive is first in the list by using the <+>\<-> keys and press <Esc>.

Save your changes and exit

Insert the USB Drive you created with the Flash utility directory added.

The system will now boot to the USB drive.

Selecting option 3 gives us a portable windows 98 dos os which we can run the flash utility.

Here is the directory where we dumped the flash tools.

Run the executable and it will bring us to the Flash tool

On reboot you will notice that we went from the A03 BIOS of the Dell PowerVault 745n to the A06 BIOS of the Dell PowerEdge 750 now we have floppy, CD-ROM, and onboard SATA support. You can put your operating system of choice on the server.

Notice the server still states that it is a Dell PowerVault 745n you can Change that with the asset.com tool found in the BIN directory.

Here’s the complete list of what’s available: ***I took this information from Terry Kennedy’s Blog I didn’t create this part***

Usage:

ASSET new_asset_tag Specify new asset tag

ASSET /d Delete asset tag

ASSET /o new_owner_tag Specify new owner tag (if applicable)

ASSET /o /d Delete owner tag (if applicable)

ASSET /? This help screen

ASSET /s new_service_tag Specify new service tag

ASSET /s /d Delete service tag

ASSET /b Specify new system board tag

system board tag must be “ssssssssssssssssssss-vvv-”, where

s..s is the 20 digit system board Part number string,

vvv is the 3 digit system board rev,

– is a don’t care character, but must be present

ASSET /b /d Delete system board tag

ASSET /k Fix 2000:0000 memory issue

ASSET /f [other_options] Force Affirmative response

ASSET /x [other options] eXtended display – displays all tags

I have just finished flashing the firmware and Im using an external DVD/CD ROM drive to install a new OS on the Dell PowerVault with the Fashed BIOS. I have decided to put Windows 7 on the server for optimum performance my application will run heavey on the process and I wanted as light weight "windows" operating system as possible I could have used linux but my apps will have heavy administrative configuration to run.

The first problem I ran in to I started to run the OS install from the Windows 7 DVD and notice it said I didn't meet the minimum requirements and I noticed each time the BIOS splash screens cycled the system stated "Amount of Available memory limited to 256MB!" I found this limitation was related to the BIOS being in OS Install Mode which you can quickly toggle off as a BIOS setting.

The Windows 7 OS goes into an installation and low and behold no disks show up for installation hence I do not have the drivers for the hard drives RAID Array. So I go to the manufactures (Dell) website and download and unpack the drivers right to the root of a USB jump drive on another computer. I plug the Jump drive in the Power Vault then browse for drivers the SATA RAID Controller shows up hit install and bam! the Hard drive Volumes show up I wipe out the original systems disk and install Windows 7 now we have a fresh install of Windows 7 on the Dell Power Vault awaiting my special tweaking which I will describe a little later..... 12/08/09