10 hours later...

[George_Fusioned]

aaaaaand we're almost getting there.

(hmm looks like inline images don't work - neither with the img html tag, nor by uploading/adding it via the Full editor, so here's the screenshot: http://cl.ly/P3CU)

It took literally 10 hours to mount a Windows Server ISO on the DRAC (from a Windows VPS on a 1Gbps uplink mind you!), boot into the Windows installation and complete it. I think I feel a year older!

What are your experiences in terms of mounted ISO speeds with the DRAC? Supermicro's IPMI mounted storage loads WAAAAAAY faster with their "mount over Windows share" option.

 

[TruvisT]

aaaaaand we're almost getting there.

Screen_Shot_2013-05-18_at_12.35.58_AM.png

(hmm looks like inline images don't work - neither with the img html tag, nor by uploading/adding it via the Full editor, so here's the screenshot: http://cl.ly/P3CU)


It took literally 10 hours to mount a Windows Server ISO on the DRAC (from a Windows VPS on a 1Gbps uplink mind you!), boot into the Windows installation and complete it. I think I feel a year older!


What are your experiences in terms of mounted ISO speeds with the DRAC? Supermicro's IPMI mounted storage loads WAAAAAAY faster with their "mount over Windows share" option.

Not a fan of DRAC at all(not used DRAC 7 yet). SMs IPMI are very nice. I've worked with them more then any other and I have to say, if possible, go with SM where at all possible.

 

[yomero]

My dedi at Wholesale Internet has a Drac. And I've installed Debian without too much trouble :S

 

[MartinD]

Not a fan of DRAC at all and I've never had any positive experiences with it. IPMI, however, has never let me down. The trusty Avocent has always been better than DRAC.

 

[George_Fusioned]

Another PITA was the Session Time-Out. 

Mounted my Windows Server ISO, restarted the server and waited for the Windows installation to load. Fifteen minutes later and all of a sudden, the Java console closed, and I was logged out of the DRAC. WTF!

Logged into the DRAC again, opened up the Java console, mounted the Windows Server ISO and waited for the Windows installation to load. Again. 15 minutes later, same thing - I was kicked out of the DRAC. 

It was only then, when I found this stupid Session Time-Out setting...

Happy to see everyone likes IPMI too

 

[coreyman]

Never have been blessed enough to use DRAC, and thankfully so after reading this thread.

 

[weservit]

The latest version of iDRAC is working great. iDRAC is more professional than IPMI in my eyes. IPMI has some bugs, especially with the older motherboards. Works without problems on our E3 and E5 servers though.

 

[George_Fusioned]

The latest version of iDRAC is working great. iDRAC is more professional than IPMI in my eyes. IPMI has some bugs, especially with the older motherboards. Works without problems on our E3 and E5 servers though.

I had the "luck" to work with an old version of DRAC ("Embedded Server Manager") I'm afraid.

Good to know newer versions improved though.

 

[mikho]

I had a similar situation when I got that Datashack offer for a Dual Opteron for $35/month.


Mounting the ilo and installing Vsphere 5 took a few times to complete (days) to complete since it decided to disconnect every now and then.


When I then later uploaded some isos for the guest OS, I only got 350kb/s. It never changed so I decided it was useless for me to have it any longer. The frustration when every little thing took ages to complete was not to my liking.


In my case it wasn't Drac, it was ILo2

 

[qps]

The Windows installer does not like to be run through a KVM over IP.  Pretty much every KVM over IP we've used for installing Windows involves extended wait periods.  

At least the DRACs have a time-out setting that you can disable - many KVM over IPs do not and it involves moving the mouse around every few minutes for the whole time the OS install is running to avoid timeouts...