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Matthew Rankin
Asked: 2011-03-17 08:14:02 +0800 CST

Installing Windows XP on an IBM x335 server

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Is there a way to install Windows XP on an IBM x335 server?

When I boot from CD-ROM with the Windows XP installation disk, the screen is just blank.

Initial research indicates this may be due to the SCSI controller. I'll update as I find out more.

Purpose

We need a license server for both Pspice and SolidWorks. Currently, our Pspice server is an IBM x3800 running Win2k with a dongle on the parallel port. The SolidWorks server is currently a Mac Mini running Windows 7 with a USB dongle.

I'd like to consolidate these two license servers onto a single piece of hardware. I have an x335 available, which has the required USB port and a PCI card can provide the parallel port. The SolidWorks server must be running WinXP or newer, hence the requirement.

If the parallel port and the USB ports can be properly seen by the Pspice and SolidWorks servers, respectively, when using virtualization, then one option is to install WinXP inside of Ubuntu server.

Update on March 24, 2011

I tried installing WinXP bare-metal onto the x335, but I was not successful. I'll admit that I quickly reached my threshold and simply bought a 1U SuperMicro system that had the required parallel and USB ports.

I did find a discussion on IBM DeveloperWorks about how to Install Windows XP on x3250 M2 4194. The last post in that thread states that the process described works on x335s as well. The process basically involves creating an unattended installation disk that includes the required LSI integrated SCSI adapter. I created an unattended installation disk, but I don't think I did it correctly as it didn't work.

What did work for me was to install WinXP inside VirtualBox running on Ubuntu. However, that seemed a little too convoluted, so for $100 I bought the 1U SuperMicro based system.

Hardware Configuration

  • Server: IBM x335, MT/M 8676-81X
  • Processor: 1x Xeon 2.6GHz
  • Memory: 1GB RAM
  • DASD: 2x HDD U320 36.4GB SCSI 10k
  • Media: 24x Max Slimline CD-ROM
  • SCSI Controller: LSI Logic 53C1020/Ultra320
  • Network: Dual Integrated Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Broadcom BCM5703
windows-xp ibm ibm-xseries

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Install VMware or HyperV (assuming it's on the HCL) and install XP in that. That's an answer.

    As I said in a comment above, "This isn't something a sysadmin would commonly do. Can you explain what your goals are? FWIW, it's not a supported OS on the x335 hardware, so it's possible that the drivers just don't exist. Or you'll have to do something unsupported to get them to work"

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  2. Installing XP on a normal consumer machine that had a SATA controller was a PITA. I can't see it working with a SCSI interface at all.

    There is a reason it isn't supported by the vendor.

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