1

I have a Proliant DL160 Gen9 that I have been asked to install Windows 7 on, even though no Windows 7 drivers seems to be available from HP. The reason for Win 7 instead of a more appropriate server OS is that this machine is a direct replacement for a desktop currently running Win 7 (with software that isn't certified for any of the windows server versions, hence Win 7)

I can see two solutions;

  1. Somehow get the Win Server 2008/2012 drivers to work on Win 7, primarily the storage controller.

    • I have tried downloading 2008x64/2008R2/2012/2012R2 storage controller (HP H240) drivers to a usb drive and point the windows installation to it when it asks for storage controller driver. It finds a driver that is compatible with the hardware, but fails to install it ("no device were found").

  2. Go for some virtual environment. But that would require it to boot and run as if Win 7 was installed directly on the server, more or less at least. Can this be done? I have previously worked with ESXI hypervisor, but it can't run the virtual OS on screen/keyboard/mouse connected directly to the server(?)

Storage controller is HP H240 FIO Smart Host Bus Adapter and the OS to be installed is Windows 7 Pro x64.

Thanks in advance!

Carl B
  • 11
  • 1
  • 2
  • Go with 2. ESXi's free tier, Hyper-V, whatever... you're probably not going to get Windows 7 to work quite right on that bare metal, and you probably don't want to anyway. – HopelessN00b Mar 10 '15 at 15:41
  • 1
    Even if it's meant to be a direct replacement of an existing system, doesn't mean that what's there makes sense.. – GregL Mar 10 '15 at 15:43
  • When you downloaded the drivers to USB, did you unzip or otherwise put the raw files on the USB drive? .ini, .inf files, etc.? From what I've seen the 2008 R2 drivers should work with 7, granted it's not an official 'guarantee'. – MDMoore313 Mar 10 '15 at 15:58
  • @BigHomie I ran the .exe -> extract (which resulted in .inf, .sys, .dll, etc) – Carl B Mar 10 '15 at 16:24
  • 3
    Virtually everything that will run on client Windows will also run on server Windows. You're probably wasting your time trying to run Windows 7. – Michael Hampton Mar 10 '15 at 18:16

2 Answers2

2

I wouldn't install a desktop OS on a server-class system precisely because you'll lose the monitoring and driver support that's needed. Those things are critical when working with HP ProLiant equipment.

You may have an option to virtualize if the application in question is not interactive or can live in an RDP session.

Otherwise, try to get a more appropriate system for the target OS.

ewwhite
  • 197,159
  • 92
  • 443
  • 809
  • The machine will have relative low need for monitoring etc, it is more or less used as a thin client where all the important stuff runs on other machines. The exact same maneuver was done earlier with a gen 8 server(with win server 2008 driver integrated in win 7 installation), with good result, which makes me believe that it is possible (even though I agree with you that it isn't a very good way) – Carl B Mar 11 '15 at 12:11
  • It could be possible, but it would make a lot more sense to use something purpose built... For instance an [**HP Z-series workstation**](http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/overview.html) is capable of using high end server-class RAM and CPU(s), but is a fully supported solution for desktop operating systems. – ewwhite Mar 11 '15 at 12:14
-3

Might I suggest installing a Server OS and using Virtualbox to install a Win7 client? This can use the screen/keyboard/mouse directly connected to the server and it can be used as if Win7 were the main OS by maximizing the window and such. That seems like the easiest solution from my end.

Landen
  • 101