Dell "software"

[mark]

Sorin Srbu wrote:
> mark <> scribbled on Thursday, November 08, 2007 2:37 AM:
> 
>> So, at work today, I realized I had to rebuild this server - it was on
>> RHEL 3, and it really needed 4 (corporate hasn't looked at 5 yet).
>>
>> It's a Dell PowerEdge 850 - a blade. I, foolishly, put in the RHEL CDs
>> that came with all these systems.... and the RH install program can't
>> find the CD it booted from. After much irritation, I find a Dell package
>> of CDs that you are apparently supposed to boot from; it's even got an
>> install for RHEL 4. Great. 
>>
>> AND SOME COMPLETE JACKASS AT DELL - what was this, release 8.9, and all
>> by kids for whom this was their first job out of school? - FORCE YOU TO
>> FORMAT ALL PARTITIONS. No options. No letting the RH install Disk Druid
>> do it. 
>>
>> So everything I had aside on /opt is toast, and that'll be hours more
>> work. 
>>
>> No, I can't recommend this crap.
> 
> Sorry to rain on your parade, but this way of restoring an os-install on a
> brand-name server (on clients as well) is rather common. I'm surprised you
> didn't know about this. On the bright side; you only tend to do this once...

I've never needed it before - this is the first time working with blade 
servers, and I haven't had trouble with a computer not finding the CD it booted 
from for a Linux install since my first time with a laptop.

And if this is "accepted" as common, then I reiterate, it's amateur, in the 
*worst* sense of the word. I wanted to save all the data, as I'd doing an 
upgrade of a full release. As I said in my article in the July SysAdmin 
magazine, it's always better to do a full install when going up a full release, 
since nobody gives you a good way to do that, as they do for a subrelease upgrade.

Why would I want to wipe /home, or /opt, if they already exist? Give me one 
good reason.

	mark