We need to run standard Solaris 10 on a few development servers (Dell 530s) because we can't get a commercial application running on OpenSolaris (we're still trying). However, we are finding that sometimes when Solaris 10 goes to do the install, after setup screens, it can't find the SATA drive. We tried the BIOS setting described here: BigAdmin
On some Dells 530s, Solaris GA installs fine, but on others it doesn't. OpenSolaris always installs. Is there some way we can determine (eg. installing OpenSolaris and examining the SATA driver used) what OpenSolaris detected and use some option or driver from it to get Solaris 10 installed on our development Dell servers?
Best Answer
If there was already a partition set up on the disk from another OS, it might have the wrong type of disk label. I've seen cases before where Solaris can't see a disk which is set up with an EFI label (say from a prior Linux installation). Using 'format -e' will cause it to ask you whether to switch to SMI. You can run the shell to issue this command within a single user Solaris media boot. If you do have this problem, switching to SMI and labelling the disk will allow the disk to be seen by the installer.
Other considerations: using the latest Solaris release (I think it is U7 now) so drivers are most current. Also check that the SATA cables have snug connections. I fought a server problem for some time before finding that swapped SATA cables made the second drive in a mirror stop going away.