[nbenton]

Hi there!

Recently, I purchased a server off of eBay, and got it. I knew this would be a problem from the start, and looking for help.

The server doesn't include a CD drive. It comes with no operating system. When turning the system on, it says something about PXE.

Here's the link to the exact auction I won:
Verari Server Dual AMD Opteron 2.0GHz 4GB 120GB IDE 1U - eBay (item 110352457320 end time Feb-19-09 18:00:00 PST)

Now I'm wondering, is there any possible way to get an OS on this? I'm sure there is, but I've never really installed any distro without having a CD drive.

I'm currently using an iMac, and I have Windows XP installed via bootcamp. The iMac was purchased new in September.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to get this server an OS?

Any of your time, suggestions, and help is GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!

(At my disposal is a 30GB iPod video, if that can be of any use as an external drive, or anything like that).

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There are several options.

First, you can attach a CDROM to the IDE channel and boot from that. You will not be able to close the case, so you need to be careful with respect to cooling since air will not be blowing the way it should.

A second option is to use a USB cdrom drive. Some machines won't boot from such a drive though.

A third option is to boot it from the network, but that means that you have to setup another machine so that it can serve the machine. This is most likely the most difficult, unless you already know how to do it.

[Kemasa]

There are several options.

First, you can attach a CDROM to the IDE channel and boot from that. You will not be able to close the case, so you need to be careful with respect to cooling since air will not be blowing the way it should.

A second option is to use a USB cdrom drive. Some machines won't boot from such a drive though.

A third option is to boot it from the network, but that means that you have to setup another machine so that it can serve the machine. This is most likely the most difficult, unless you already know how to do it.

[nbenton]

A third option is to boot it from the network, but that means that you have to setup another machine so that it can serve the machine. This is most likely the most difficult, unless you already know how to do it.

I tried them all but 2, and 3 was the only thing I had success with.

Thank you

[tICM]

Hey, I also bought one of these off of eBay. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with option 3. Anybody care to give me some pointers? It would be much appreciated.