Intel Xserve - serial console problem

Z

zbychad

Registered
Since I'm newly registered on this Forum I'd like to say hello to everybody :)

I'm looking for help with problem I can not deal with on my own. We have about 20 intel- based Xserve (headless). Everything works fine except of serial console - there is no way to connect to it. There are only few random characters displayed on system start and thats all. I've tried all connection settings that are mentioned in Apple documentation (57600 8N1, 9600 8N1 etc.. ) with no success. I'm using ZTerm and PL2303 based USB RS232 adapter- no problem with serial console on sun, cisco, brocade and many more . Connection with older xserve's is also possible.

I have to put all machines into production, but I can not do this without reinstalling Mac OS X - Raid 1 on OS slice is required. I can not start OS installation with no graphic card or serial console :(

Best regards,
Zbigniew Adamkiewicz
zbychad@gmail.com
 
there is a very simple way to install the software remotely (without KVM)

the software includes (on the tools disc) remote setup assistant which can be used to install/configure/upgrade the server(s).

you need two documents.

Xserve User Guide - Page 11 in the guide. (to prep the box)
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Xserve_Intel_UserGuide.pdf

Server 10.4 Getting Started - Page 65 in the guide. (to get the install going)
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Mac_OS_X_Server_v10.4_Getting_Started.pdf

keep in mind that if your version of the OS doesn't match exactly.. no big deal... it's worked the same way for a long time... :)

hth
 
zbychad said:
Since we have 20 machines to reinstall, I was searching for solution to boot from CD and mirror existing system disk with spare disk without reinstalling OS:

http://www.makemacwork.com/mirror-disks-after-install.htm

Because we are running out of time now, I created RAID from Disk Utility in target disk mode and I'm reinstalling xserves right now.

Thank you very much anyway,

Zbigniew Adamkiewicz
zbychad@gmail.com
Click to expand...


If you have a firewire external drive, you could boot from from the firewire drive and mirror from there. Should be easier as creating a cd.


Good luck, kees
 
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