Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Windows Operating System Installation Guide

Chapter 1 Getting Started

This chapter provides important guidelines and information you need to know before installing the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP operating system on a Sun Ultra 27 workstation.

The following sections are included in this chapter:

About Windows Server Installation

The following chapters in this document describe how to install the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2008, and Windows XP operating systems. The installation procedures apply to both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating systems.

If you are installing Windows XP, note that the mass storage drivers arenot included with the Windows XP distribution media. If you are installing Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Server 2008, the required mass storage driver are included with the distribution media.

Important Installation Considerations

Note the following important considerations before beginning the Windows Server operating system installation on mass storage connected to your Sun workstation:

When you install the Windows operating system, any data on the boot drive, including any preinstalled operating system, is overwritten.
If you are using the on-board Intel® ICH10R AHCI SATA disk controller connected to mass storage, and you want to include your boot drive as part of a RAID configuration, you must first configure your system's SATA configuration setting for RAID using the system BIOS setup utility (accessible by pressing F2 during boot). Then, configure your RAID volumes using the Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM utility (accessible by pressing Ctrl-I during workstation boot) before you install the Windows operating system.
If you have the optional LSI 3041E Host Bus Adapter connected to mass storage, and you want to include your boot drive as part of a RAID configuration, you must configure your RAID volumes using the controller's BIOS configuration utility (accessible by pressing Ctrl-C during workstation boot) before you install the Windows operating system.

Note –
For configurations that require additional hardware, you must install the hardware before you can install the operating system. You might also need to configure the boot device priority in the workstation’s BIOS setup program.
Windows XP does not contain the mass storage drivers required for your workstation. The mass storage drivers can be delivered from a floppy disk, USB flash disk or CD/DVD.
Check for any known issues with your workstation and the version of Windows you are installing by reviewing the appropriate sections in the Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Product Notes.

The installation procedures described in this document guide you through the process of selecting an installation method for the mass storage driver and operating system media.

Supported Windows Operating Systems

The Sun Ultra 27 workstation supports the following Microsoft Windows operating systems at the time of publication of this document:

Microsoft Windows Vista, Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition (32-bit or 64-bit)
Microsoft Windows XP, SP2 (32–bit or 64–bit)

The updated list of supported operating systems can be found on the Sun Ultra 27 workstation product page:

http://www.sun.com/desktop/index.jsp

Manual Installation

This section provides an overview to the steps required to manually install Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP locally on your workstation.

Note –

If you plan to use a Windows Deployment Services server to install Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Server 2008 to your workstation, see Chapter 8, Incorporating Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Drivers Into a WIM Image (Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Server 2008 Only).

To install Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP from CD media onto your workstation, complete the following procedures in order:

Download driver packages (see Chapter 2, Downloading Driver Packages).
Prepare the mass storage drivers media for Windows XP installations. See Chapter 6, Installing Windows XP .
Prepare workstation internal storage for Windows installation (see Chapter 3, Preparing Disks for the Operating System).
Install Windows. See one of these chapters:
Update the critical workstation drivers (see Chapter 7, Updating the Critical Drivers and Software).

After completing these procedures, you will have successfully installed the Windows operating system.

About Drivers

This section describes the types of drivers required for your workstation and when you would install them.

The OS itself or Sun provides drivers for your workstation. Some of these drivers need to be installed during OS installation and some of these can be installed and updated after OS installation. In some cases, you might need to prepare the drivers before you install the OS. Most of these drivers are found on the OS distribution media, the Tools and Drivers DVD, or from the windows.zip file that is downloadable from the Sun software download site.

In general, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows 2008 OSs include drivers in the OS itself.

Some of the drivers for Windows XP are not included in the OS. You need to copy the drivers from the Tools and Drivers CD to diskette and then load the drivers during OS installation by pressing F6. , If you do not load the mass storage drivers, the workstation does not recognize the hard disk. After OS installation, you can load the Intel Storage Manager and configure RAID 0 or RAID 1. You can also use the Windows XP reburn CD to install the OS and drivers.

Table 1–1 Sun Ultra 27 Drivers


Driver	OS	When Installed	How Installed	Notes
Mass storage	Vista	During OS installation		Included in the OS distribution media.
	Windows Server 2008	During OS installation		Included in the OS distribution media.
	Windows XP	During OS installation	Prepare drivers ahead of time; installed through a local floppy disk , USB flash disk, or CD/DVD	Included in the Tools and Drivers CD; see Chapter 6, Installing Windows XP.
Windows Imaging Format (WIM) files	Vista Windows Server 2008	During OS installation	Windows Deployment Services (WDS)	You can install many drivers into a WIM image and install them using WDS; see Chapter 8, Incorporating Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Drivers Into a WIM Image (Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Server 2008 Only).
NVIDIA Graphics and Realtek Audio	Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows XP	After OS installation		If you use a WIM image (Vista/2008 only), these drivers are installed during landing of the image (see Chapter 8).

Deploying a Windows Image to Your Workstation

If you plan to deploy Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Server 2008 to your workstation using a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server, refer to Chapter 8, Incorporating Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Drivers Into a WIM Image (Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Server 2008 Only) for information on creating and mounting a WIM image with the necessary drivers for your workstation.