That sounds really odd.

I had two of these v60x systems in a production active/standby small Postgres database configuration (with external SCSI array) when they came out, some ~18 years ago.

I can't remember having any specific difficulties getting an OS on it, but I was using SUSE enterprise at the time and would have done a usb stick based install. From your description it sounds like there is some hardware issue or bios problem - I forget, but did these have serial terminal support? We had v20z systems of the same age which did, and we often used a terminal to do work on them rather than the monitor which we wheeled around on a crash cart. If I recall correctly, they had a very restricted out of band management interface via IPMI which basically let you do remote power control, but not much more.

All of my stuff based on these systems (and the similar vintage Sun fire series) at work is long, long gone now.

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-06, 07:33:

That sounds really odd.

I had two of these v60x systems in a production active/standby small Postgres database configuration (with external SCSI array) when they came out, some ~18 years ago.

I can't remember having any specific difficulties getting an OS on it, but I was using SUSE enterprise at the time and would have done a usb stick based install. From your description it sounds like there is some hardware issue or bios problem

What kind of hardware issue it could be? Is it the onboard graphics (garbage on the screen, but it worked fine while using IDE HDD for test) RAM is definitely not the problem because I was testing it in MemTest86 as I said before and it didn’t find any errors. CPUs eh, I swapped them between sockets, tried to run with single CPU and it didn’t help too. Yes it does have terminal port but I think it works over RS232-RJ45 cable which I don’t have. Did it had floppy or CDROM option on front? Because I saw CDROM and FDD mentioned on Oracle website where was features and original specs of this server.

Oh also, BIOS problem, is there any way to update it via USB/CDROM *NOT* using floppy? Or I guess I may have latest version, I need to check that

KW_123 wrote on 2024-04-06, 08:43:

Did it had floppy or CDROM option on front? Because I saw CDROM and FDD mentioned on Oracle website where was features and original specs of this server.

The Sun systems I was buying at the time (a small number of these Xeon based v60, with a large rack of Opteron based v20z and v40z running our Python based web applications, before moving on to the much nicer/newer Fire x-series a couple of years afterwards) would all have been specced with cd/dvd drives as we didn't have the infrastructure in place at that time to do network imaging for Linux hosts.

I never had any issue installing various Linux flavours - I think we started out with SUSE 9, but we also tested a period version of Debian at the time. Nothing stands out as being problematic booting from or installing them.

The behaviour (won't boot, garbage on screen, unresponsive kb/mouse) of all of the OS versions you've tried that aren't already on the internal SCSI disk would definitely be a red flag to me. What is the currently installed OS running like? Any weird behaviour from that, too?

Can you try something basic like a Debian install CD and see if you get similar behaviour? If you do, then I'd probably be relegating the system to the trash.

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-04-06, 10:55:

The Sun systems I was buying at the time (a small number of these Xeon based v60, with a large rack of Opteron based v20z and v4 […]
Show full quote

KW_123 wrote on 2024-04-06, 08:43:

Did it had floppy or CDROM option on front? Because I saw CDROM and FDD mentioned on Oracle website where was features and original specs of this server.

The Sun systems I was buying at the time (a small number of these Xeon based v60, with a large rack of Opteron based v20z and v40z running our Python based web applications, before moving on to the much nicer/newer Fire x-series a couple of years afterwards) would all have been specced with cd/dvd drives as we didn't have the infrastructure in place at that time to do network imaging for Linux hosts.

I never had any issue installing various Linux flavours - I think we started out with SUSE 9, but we also tested a period version of Debian at the time. Nothing stands out as being problematic booting from or installing them.

The behaviour (won't boot, garbage on screen, unresponsive kb/mouse) of all of the OS versions you've tried that aren't already on the internal SCSI disk would definitely be a red flag to me. What is the currently installed OS running like? Any weird behaviour from that, too?

Can you try something basic like a Debian install CD and see if you get similar behaviour? If you do, then I'd probably be relegating the system to the trash.

There is no current OS running, Before i Installed Windows Server 2003 R2 on IDE HardDrive wothout any issues, then upgraded to Server 2008 RTM SP2 and it worked just fine except that Install was a little broken and harddrive was dying. Some apps or installers would't just run, the process would show up in task manager for fraction of second and it would dissappear. Now, mine server doesn't have any built in CD/DVD/FDD drives - i have to connect them on my own to IDE/FDD connectors onboard. I will try booting up old version of RedHat, OpenSUSE and Debian as you said and maybe i will get it up and running. I will let you know once i finish testing if It's good.
NOTE: I didn't installed Server2003R2 because it said it didn't detect any hard drives to install it on.
Thanks for all tips, I'll let you know soon if it works or not.

Do you have "HostRaid" enabled in the Adaptec BIOS ? If so you need to create an array afaik.
Did a little searching and found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20031004212855/ht … rver/SE7501WV2/
and this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20031014124641/ht … erating+Systems
looks like you need a (f6) driver for the onboard scsi or else may not be seen proper by Winderz. All the files listed were on the now defunct ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/ server...
There are some files listed here but they may not be correct: https://rebyte.me/en/intel/125322/
I would try a diff scsi adapter (2940U2W, 19160 etc) and see if that helps.

Horun wrote on 2024-04-06, 15:31:

Do you have "HostRaid" enabled in the Adaptec BIOS ? If so you need to create an array afaik. Did a little searching and found t […]
Show full quote

Do you have "HostRaid" enabled in the Adaptec BIOS ? If so you need to create an array afaik.
Did a little searching and found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20031004212855/ht … rver/SE7501WV2/
and this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20031014124641/ht … erating+Systems
looks like you need a (f6) driver for the onboard scsi or else may not be seen proper by Winderz. All the files listed were on the now defunct ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/ server...
There are some files listed here but they may not be correct: https://rebyte.me/en/intel/125322/
I would try a diff scsi adapter (2940U2W, 19160 etc) and see if that helps.

I enabled it and created the array but still same thing, I guess I need other driver (F6) as you said. Thanks for the links, I couldn’t find it anywhere, but I don’t have any spare SCSI controller for PCI If you meant that, if you mean other driver, I will look just to make it work. Again thanks for all tips advices and links. Hope it’s gonna work 😀
I’m driving now back from party so I’ll check that out tomorrow.
Thanks again, good night/day

Found the F6 drivers. There are two versions: one with HostRaid disabled and one with enabled. I suggest you remove the disk array and disable HostRaid since you currently have just the one scsi HD.
This is for 32bit and 64bit Win2003 w/o HostRaid. https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/scs … 0s4_win_exe.php This is same file set as what was on Intels archive...
For Win2008 you need to pick one of these:
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/downloads … rd+39320-r.html
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/downloads … rd+39320-r.html

Horun wrote on 2024-04-07, 01:18:

Found the F6 drivers. There are two versions: one with HostRaid disabled and one with enabled. I suggest you remove the disk arr […]
Show full quote

Found the F6 drivers. There are two versions: one with HostRaid disabled and one with enabled. I suggest you remove the disk array and disable HostRaid since you currently have just the one scsi HD.
This is for 32bit and 64bit Win2003 w/o HostRaid. https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/speed/scs … 0s4_win_exe.php This is same file set as what was on Intels archive...
For Win2008 you need to pick one of these:
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/downloads … rd+39320-r.html
https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/downloads … rd+39320-r.html

Thank you so much again. I'm burning CD with integrated drivers (via NLite) hope it's gonna work 😁
Disabled HostRAID support so yeah. Maybe when i'll get second hard drive i'll enable it back. Thanks again.

thanks, it works now! WinServ2003R2 is installing on HardDrive. As for boot problems:

Can you try something basic like a Debian install CD and see if you get similar behaviour? If you do, then I'd probably be relegating the system to the trash.

I only had Arch Linux latest version (i686) on CD as for linuxes. It booted just fine, i was doing MemTest86 from that CD and tried booting to shell and it booted to shell fine too.
As i told Server 2003 is installing right now. Thanks to everyone that helped me, I had enough of this server and now it can be used for another years. It worked in my dad's work some years ago and they wanted to get rid of it as they were doing upgrades of servers and getting rid of old crap, dad brought it to me a week ago, and I'm glad he did, such nice piece of old hardware.
Again Thanks to everyone who got me some tips, links and stuff.
have a nice rest of weekend 😁