Intel SR1530HSH/SH On Board RAID and Server 2008

Intel's site indicates that drivers are forth coming for the Xeon 3000 series servers.

When at the S3200SH choose your OS download page, if one chooses either the 32bit or 64bit versions of Vista we end up with no drivers available.

However, if we choose the Server 2003 x64 or x86 OS version, we do end up with a download option: Software RAID Driver for Windows version 09.23.1010.2007.

After extracting the drivers we see:

Windows Vista x86 and x64 RAID Drivers

Place the drivers on a USB drive and we are good to go.

Windows Server 2008 will pickup the RAID array(s) and the OS install can proceed.

By the way, the Intel Server Configurator gives us a SATA based DVDROM or DVDRW as options. Intel has a disclaimer on their S3200SH support site indicating that connecting the SATA based optical drive to an on board or add-in RAID card is "Supported but not tested".

We have done a number of Server 2008 installs for both Full and Core editions on systems configured with on board and add-in RAID. So far we have not run into a SATA based optical drive access or performance problem.

Keep in mind that we make a point of sourcing only the Intel specific part numbers from our suppliers. We will not purchase other branded or supplied slimline optical drives for our rack mount server setups. For servers, we always err on the side of caution.

This is one issue we will need to keep an eye on until Intel puts a "Fully supported and tested" indicator for the RAID controllers we work with.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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