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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Frederick, MD
    Posts
    44

    Bootable External USB CDRom For Servers

    I have several 1U servers, consisting of PDSMi & H8SSL-i SuperMicro MB's. Ideally, I'd like to stop fitting internal CD/DVDRoms into these as, after initial installation, they really tend to collect dust.

    I'd rather get an external CD/DVDRom, USB based that I could boot off of when needed, and install the OS from. I do have a nice USB DVDRom right now, but was unable to get the MB's to boot from it. It is more of a 'burner' 'backup' type deal anyway.

    Anyone here run SuperMicro MB's that could offer any suggestions on hardware that has worked in the past. Not looking for any bells and whistles, just an external USB CDRom that I can drag with me (or leave in) the datacenter when needed. I've already gotten a cheap USB floppy drive which works perfectly.

    Thanks!
    Tom

  2. #2
    I have one I leave at the dc. However I went cheap and got a bulky one that requires power, if I was to do it again I would get a much smaller one that draws power off the USB rather then a plug in.

    All of my equipment is either Tyan or Supermicro and I have only had one board so far have problems with it.

    That particular board would boot from it (for doing a CentOS isntall) but for some reason would not complete the install, however since I could get the board to boot from it I was able to complete the install from over the net.

    I hope that helps!!

    BTW- my CDROM is a CompUSA brand.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Jacksonville, FL
    Posts
    981
    Quote Originally Posted by VertexBilly
    BTW- my CDROM is a CompUSA brand.
    I have one of these too; it seems to work better than the one I slapped together using a no-name external USB enlcosure plus a Sony CD-RW. Better, as in, the CompUSA brand seems to work flawlessly with more hardware and more OS's than the generic one.

    Now selling BigVPS's!
    Jacksonville Colocation and dedicated servers by colo4jax
    We are *not* a reseller. We own our servers, switches, routers and racks.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Frederick, MD
    Posts
    44
    Thanks for the helpful advice. You guys rock!

  5. #5
    I've run into issues installing linux on some supermicro boxes via an external dvd. Rather than address the issue, I generally boot off a usb key containing diskboot.img and install via http. Has made life easier than keeping discs on hand.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    So Cal
    Posts
    100
    We've been running USB drives for some time now. I just picked up a number of these drives which are nice and compact, so they're easy to move around. http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?...d=64&Itemid=87

    I also have a few older Asus USB CDRW drives.

    We run Supermicro nearly exclusively and I've never had an issue with them booting from USB drives.

    I hope that helps.

    - Mike

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    714
    I've also found that USB keys are convenient. A lot easier to carry around than an external cd-rom drive. I picked up some 128MB keys for under $10.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    New York, USA
    Posts
    467
    Quote Originally Posted by sloop
    I've also found that USB keys are convenient. A lot easier to carry around than an external cd-rom drive. I picked up some 128MB keys for under $10.
    Just curious why don't you guys use PXEBOOT instead? We do with with our Linux servers, I can't remember the last time we used a CDROM. All of our server's with CDROMs collect dust.

    I haven't tried but I also believe there are methods to also use PXEBOOT with Windows also.
    Larry Ludwig
    Empowering Media
    HostCube - Proactively Managed Xen based VPSes
    Empowering Media - The Dev Null Blog

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