On Nov 21, 2007, at 7:23 PM, Brian Blood wrote:
Question to my Apple Authorized dealer that I just ordered Leopard
Server from to install on an Xserve G4:
can you find out for me how I can get CD versions of the Leopard
Server installer?
we have some xserves that do not have DVD capable optical drives.
His Reply:
From what I understand it doesn't exist, one of the requirement of
Leopard is a DVD drive. I'm guessing you'll have to
boot from another computer that has a DVD drive in Firewire Target
mode.
My retort:
From:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/specs.html
System Requirements
Mac server or desktop computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or
PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor; 1GB of physical RAM; 20GB
of available disk space.
His Reply (looks like text pulled from somewhere)
This is the first release of Mac OS X that's not available in any
form on CD, as all consumer-class computers that are capable of
running Leopard also have at least a Combo Drive (DVD reading plus
CD writing). Some Xserve models can run Mac OS X Server 10.5 but
have only a CD-ROM drive; for such machines, you can perform a
network installation using another computer running Leopard
Server, or put the computer into Target Disk Mode and install
Leopard Server from another computer that has a DVD reader.
Asking the Google, I find that text here:
http://db.tidbits.com/article/9243
So, installing Leopard Server on an Xserve G4 requires some sort of
external piece of hardware. (Which of course, won't be supplied by
Apple (-; )
Target Disk Mode is not really an option as TGM on an Xserve G4
only exposes the device in Bay 1. Since we always build our Xserve
G4s out with Mirrored arrays, we couldn't start with a fresh pair
of disks to install onto as a RAID pair. Perhaps a single drive
RAID mirror might work and then add in second disk once booted up.
Ugh. I hate having to perform convoluted workarounds just to
install an OS.
I guess all machines are equally supported for Leopard, just some
are more equal than others.
--
Brian Blood
MacServe.net
What I've done in the past with Tiger DVDs is made an image of the
DVD and restored it to a partition on a firewire drive. I would make
two partitions on a small firewire drive. The first partition would
be the installer DVD and the second partition would include updates
and Auto Server Setup files.
Boot the Xserve to the external firewire drive and run the installer
just like you would from the disc. It's much, much faster too. Works
on any Xserve, no matter what kind of optical drive you have.
Kevin Anderson
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