Cannot install Windows onto Virtual disk on Dell Poweredge R820

Would really appreciate some help on this issue

Try setting up iDRAC and then use the Lifecycle Controller to perform a guided install. Note you may have to update Lifecycle Controller first if you have a newer OS. (Windows 2016 is latest version supported on that server).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uCuQKNIQpY

Hi Andy, thank you for helping. The guided install in the lifecycle controller wouldn't work for me. It couldn't see the USB drive which I had plugged in in the drop-down menu for the OS... so I couldn't proceed.

However, when I went into  either the BIOS or UEFI boot options, it would see the same USB drive plugged into the same USB port... very strange.

The early black screens tells me that the RAID controller is controlled by BIOS. Should this be UEFI? If so, any ideas how to switch it from BIOS to UEFI?

You can use lifecycle controller with a .ISO shared from a PC, it gets around the FAT32 restriction with USB sticks.
EDIT: here is how to mount the .ISO - https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124001/using-the-virtual-media-function-on-idrac-6-7-8-and-9

HI Andy - what's the FAT32 restriction with USB sticks? I'm not sure what you mean.

Lifecycle Controller only supports FAT32 file system on USB sticks.

But Fat32 is required if you want to install to UEFI. That is also the case if you boot directly from hardware to a USB device. At least when installing any Windoze OS. So I assume that is the reason why that is the limit in the Lifecycle controller. If you boot directly from the iso the filesystem makes no difference.

Wow, that could be significant.... I will try and format the USB key as FAT32 and get WINdows installer onto it and see if I can install from it via lifecycle controller....

Good luck shrinking Windows installation media down to 4GB to fit on FAT32, that's why you mount an ISO via virtual media instead.

ouch. It's been a while 😀 ok I'll try the virtual media instead.

There are tools that split the images into 4GB chunks, for example WinsetupFromUSB, then you can use FAT32 on the stick to boot from. Or Ventoy formats the stick to ExFAT which doesn't have the 4GB Limit, & you can then just copy the iso to it.

http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

For a long time I used WinSetupFromUSB, which usually worked perfectly (except with some special BIOSes), it allowed be to mix Windoze iso's & Linux iso's on the same stick. But Ventoy works better, it doesn't seem to have problems with "special" BIOSes yet (from my experience), & since you can simply copy the iso as is to the stick it is much simpler to use. WinsetupFromUSB extracts the iso to the stick into different directories then creates a boot menu.

not having much luck unfortunately. iDRAC is freezing when I try to modify the settings for DHCP or static IP address, having to hard boot each time to get back to the settings for iDRAC

Try resetting iDRAC to default, then do a full leads-out power cycle and try to set IP address again.


Reset procedures - https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000126703/how-to-reset-the-internal-dell-remote-access-controller-idrac-on-a-poweredge-server

ok I'm in, thank you!!! am now logged into the interface, so will give the virtual Mount idea a go next...

Hi. I got through to the stage where I select the disk to install Windows to, but there are even less options now... I cannot see any drives at all.... please see attached screenshot. Is there something I need to do first with RAID? Ideally, I want only two disks in RAID 0, (as I have had problems with the RAID controller and already had to purchase a new RAID controller card) so I was inclined to get rid of RAID and just install it to one single disk... but now I don't even see that drive...
disks.JPG

You need to use "Load Driver" & then load the PERC's driver, then "Refresh" & you should see your RAID array.

rindi, thank you for the input, can you give me some assistance on the perc driver, where would I locate it?

HI, yes I had to replace the raid controller, as the one that came with it died. I have created a RAID in lifecycle controller with 4 disks.

OK, I am now seeing a possible drive to install windows, but it says windows cannot install on it. Kind of where I was yesterday. So if I click 'load driver' I should browse to a driver for the new raid controller card that I have installed, correct?

4 dive array might be greater than 2.2TiB, did you put it into UEFI mode?

I'm sorry this is dragging on, this is a huge learning curve for me. I downloaded drivers from Dell website for the PERC (DELL PERC H700 512MB 6G RAID CONTROLLER) but when I browsed to it, it complained that the drivers weren't signed, and would not proceed.

I am sure I set it to UEFI, but I believe BIOS is still controlling raid. I can't do much until UEFI is controlling the RAID?

The disk size is 2235.5GB, so perhaps I need to break the RAID again, and take out one or even two disks, and try again?

When you create the virtual disk on the array you can set it to be less than the maximum size, then the same set of disks can have a second logical disk with the rest of the space.

The Logical drives controlled by bios message just means it's hardware RAID, message is the same whether in UEFI or legacy mode.

So, since I changed BIOS to UEFI, it will no longer boot to the virtual drive with the Windows .iso, please see attached.
disks3.JPG

Now I am getting the attached. Does this ever end.
disks4.JPG

That means the RAID controller cables are crossed, you can swap them over at the controller or at the backplane.

BTW, I would leave it in legacy mode rather than UEFI and create a smaller virtual disk for the OS, say 300GB, then the rest can be a data volume.

Thanks so much, Andy, yes, swapping around the cables has helped a lot... I am now back at the windows installer window, but still, even if I create a small partition of 300GB it won't install windows to it.
disks5.jpg

And I can no longer connect via iDRAC, it is no longer responding at the IP address I assigned to it.

Actually, it has started responding again, so I am going to try loading virtual drive again pointing to .iso, and reboot and see if it will get me any further

disks6.JPG

This is what I got when I tried to boot to the virtual disk after reboot
disks7.JPG

Changed from BIOS to UEFI, and this is the error I get now.
disks8.JPG

I have absolutely no idea what I am doing wrong.

All help much appreciated.

Try using Lifecycle controller to upgrade iDRAC etc.

in  the raid configuration you create your virtual disk and you have to set which virtual disk to boot from.. even if you only have one raid array.

Windows could not install to the drive since you already partitioned it. probably using mbr initialization instead of gpt or the reverse.

when you get this message try 

shift-f10 to get into a command prompt

diskpart

list disk

select disk x (replace X with the disk # from the previous command)

clean

exit   -- this exits diskpart

exit  -- this exits the command prompt

now refresh the disks 

you should now be able to install the OS

hi David. no luck unfortunately, same error, cannot install to this partition.

someone has suggested to me that perhaps the replacement raid controller card I bought, although compatible with a dell poweredge r820, might not be compatible with the disks. how would I go about confirming this?

I have windows boot disk on a usb drive, when booting and selecting uefi boot options the drive is not bootable, when I change over to bios boot options the drive is visible and bootable

just started from scratch again. went into lifecycle controller, created new raid, selected os install. Manual install has greyed out drop down menu to select os media. cannot select the usb drive with bootable windows server files. what am I doing wrong???????

changed option for os install in lifecycle controller from uefi /ws 2012 to bios / ws 2012 and it doesn't see the usb drive with the files for setup. what am I supposed to do? does it need an iso file on the usb drive or what?

formatted the usb drive and put an .iso for windows server 2012 on it and the drive is still not seen. can anyone help me?

changed option back to uefi/2012 and the drive is still not seen. so basically I cannot install an os in lifecycle controller and I cannot install an os direct from usb bootable disk. has anyone out there ever once come across such a scenario, or is the first time anyone has ever seen this ever happen?

In system setup / system bios / sata settings, should it be set to ata mode, ahci mode, or off ?

Why hae you gone back to using the USB stick? You mounted the .ISO via virtual media using iDRAC yesterday.

I am trying everything.... did you see the screenshot of the errors I was getting when I tried to Mount to virtual media. it is above 👆🏻

I just tried to boot to the virtual disk again, and I am getting the same error  as above. I don't know why that is. Do you know why it is no longer able to boot to the virtual disk, and I will try whatever you suggest.
disks9.JPG

Andy, I noticed that hitting enter from the iDRAC session from my own computer did nothing, so I went direct to the server and hit enter when it said "hit any key to boot from dvd" and yes, it worked, now I am back at a windows setup screen. However, I still cannot get past this screen as it cannot install to any of the listed disks. I have tried everything that has been suggested so far with diskpart commands etc, but no luck. Do you know how to get past this?

ACHI / SATA shouldn't matter since you are using a SAS RAID controller.
If you want to use a FAT32 USB stick then use Rufus - https://rufus.ie/en/

I thought Lifecycle install didn't boot from the ISO, it's meant to reboot from the RAID controller after it copies some stuff onto the virtual disk, try changing boot order.

omg, I think it's starting to install??! I don't know what setting is making it do so, but it is now installing on the first listed disk...
disks10.JPG

Windows has now successfully installed. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me to get this resolved. Your expertise was much valued and appreciated. Many thanks.

What a relief! I'm not sure if Lifecycle install puts OMSA on or not, you'll need that to monitor the health etc.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=15hwn