Bull NovaScale T840 F3 Getting Started Guide 4
1.3 Operating System Installation
The NovaScale T840 F3 offers an embedded Configuration utility: the Lifecycle
Controller - Unified Server Configurator, which includes an OS Deployment Wizard
that assists you with the installation of the Operating System.
Refer to the technical characteristics of the Server on
www.bull.com/novascale to get
the list of supported Operating Systems.
Notes • The list of Operating Systems offered by the Lifecycle controller may be larger than the
list of the supported Operating Systems.
• For the installation of a supported Operating System not listed in the Lifecycle
controller, see
http://support.bull.com.
• For the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x server installation, if the software has been
ordered from Bull, you got a media & doc package which contains the Bull Installation
Pack (BIP) software. You can use the BIP to automatically install some useful packages
of the Red Hat distribution. It is time saving for a smart installation. Don’t use the
Lifecycle controller if you decide to use the BIP.
Residing on an embedded flash memory chip, the Lifecycle controller is similar to a
BIOS utility in that it can be started during the boot sequence and can function
independently of an installed operating system.
It provides drivers that may be required for operating system installation, depending
on which operating system you are installing. The OS Deployment wizard extracts
these drivers and copies them to a staging directory. These files are deleted after an
18-hour period or when you press the <F10> key to either cancel operating system
installation or re-enter Lifecycle controller after rebooting.
Note During the 18-hour period when the drivers are extracted to the temporary location,
you cannot update the Lifecycle controller firmware, drivers, or diagnostics using a
Driver Update Package after the operating system is installed. In that case the Driver
Update Package will display a message that another session is open.
For supported Microsoft® Windows® operating systems and for supported Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.x, these extracted drivers are installed during the operating system
installation.
For supported VMware ESXi 5.x, if the VMware media used for the installation does
not include the drivers required for the server, you can download from
http://support.bull.com, a ESXi installer image created by Bull. This image may
contain additional certified drivers.
Before installing the operating system, the OS Deployment wizard detects if a boot
device is available. A boot device is a physical disk, virtual disk, or other storage
device on which the operating system can be installed.