Dedicated at Hetzner + Windows

Elmo

Heya all,

I got a dedicated server at Hetzner (SB44) and ordered the paid Windows Server 2016 addon in Robot. OS installation was carried out automatically and after a while I got an email with the username/password to login. So far so good.

The server has 4x HDD SATA 2,0 TB Enterprise connected to RAID Controller 4-Port SATA PCI-E - LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i. After the automatic Windows Installation (which I had no involvement in), I noticed a RAID 6 configuration, which is quite OK, but with an MBR partitioning, which is capped to 2TB usable space (out of 3.8TB in total)

Given the fact that I can not intervene in neither the RAID configuration nor the installation of the OS, what is the correct way to achieve a GUID Partition Table and maybe RAID 5 configuration?

Since this post has to do with Hetzner I'm tagging our Hetzner expert, @Falzo

marson

You can try to order KVM console (formerly LARA) and reinstall Windows by yourself but I don't know what about license and product key.

Falzo

sorry man, but sadly I am for sure no expert on this, especially windows stuff ;-)

a manual install via their KVM console could be a way, though I never have done that.
I guess that might also enable you to access the raid-controller settings if you want to change that raid-level.

there is an wiki entry about the win 2016 stuff: https://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/Windows_Server_2016/en

but this does not say much about custom installations and how the activation/licensing is supposed to be handled. I strongly suggest to contact their support about that and ask beforehand - maybe they just do a custom install based on your requirements?

another way might be to look into partitioning tools that can handle a conversion to GPT...

Microsoft offers mbr2gpt for that https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt - but I can't tell if that works on 2016 too.

I think I used AOMEI partition assisstant once for something comparable... still everything like that, use at your own risk and without any guarantees ;-)

geekalot

@Elmo, you can use their Rescue Mode and run the megacli commandline tool to modify HW RAID settings

• Link: https://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/LSI_RAID_Controller/en

For example, according to their wiki, to create a RAID10 config using megacli:
megacli -CfgSpanAdd -r10 -Array0[252:0,252:1] -Array1[252:2,252:3] WB RA Direct CachedBadBBU -strpsz1024 -a0

Then, if you can't prep the Windows OS from Rescue Mode, then request the IP KVM (free for 3 hrs) to do what you need.

• Link: https://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/KVM-Console/en

The rest of the Windows config/licensing is on you.

Cheers

Falzo

geekalot said: The rest of the Windows config/licensing is on you.

you probably missed that part:

Elmo said: ordered the paid Windows Server 2016 addon

;-)

AndrewSSD

Contact hetzner support and let them know to send you a windows license.

Elmo

Thank you all for your contributions.

Just to clarify that the Windows addon (aka license), is paid monthly to Hetzner (23 EUR every month). In that respect, the client (me) can not carry out the Windows installation part. That would be the case if I wanted to bring my own Windows License.

@geekalot said:
@Elmo, you can use their Rescue Mode and run the megacli commandline tool to modify HW RAID settings

• Link: https://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/LSI_RAID_Controller/en

For example, according to their wiki, to create a RAID10 config using megacli:
megacli -CfgSpanAdd -r10 -Array0[252:0,252:1] -Array1[252:2,252:3] WB RA Direct CachedBadBBU -strpsz1024 -a0

Then, if you can't prep the Windows OS from Rescue Mode, then request the IP KVM (free for 3 hrs) to do what you need.

• Link: https://wiki.hetzner.de/index.php/KVM-Console/en

The rest of the Windows config/licensing is on you.

Cheers

Thanks for the Wiki article. Apparently I missed the part with configuring the RAID, but in my case I could only reach up to that point (RAID config). Rest (Windows install) should again be carried out by Hetzner, for the reason explained above.

@AndrewSSD said:
Contact hetzner support and let them know to send you a windows license.

Well, that was (almost) the solution I opened a ticket and asked for 3 things:
a) Perform RAID 5 Configuration of the storage
b) Use GUID Partition table (GPT)
c) Reinstall the Windows Server 2016 addon on the server

And that was enough to solve the problem. I hope this post will be helpful to others as well.

@Falzo said:
sorry man, but sadly I am for sure no expert on this, especially windows stuff ;-)

No worries. I'm not into Windows VPS either, but that was a special case for a client. Please don't hold it against me

First-Root

Someone told me that @falzo also uses windows vps !

eol

Why windows?
You can easily install backdoors, trojans, keyloggers and mic and cam recording on Linux also. :P

First-Root

@eol said:
Why windows?
You can easily install backdoors, trojans, keyloggers and mic and cam recording on Linux also. :P

Linux is too cheap

geekalot

@Falzo said:

geekalot said: The rest of the Windows config/licensing is on you.

you probably missed that part:

Elmo said: ordered the paid Windows Server 2016 addon

;-)

@Elmo said:
Thanks for the Wiki article. Apparently I missed the part with configuring the RAID, but in my case I could only reach up to that point (RAID config). Rest (Windows install) should again be carried out by Hetzner, for the reason explained above.

@Falzo, @Elmo: on you = up to you to figure out/followup on. I don't use their (or any other provider's) automated installer. I am just familiar with setting up the RAID via megacli in preparation for a custom install.

Cheers

Falzo

@FR_Michael said:
Someone told me that @falzo also uses windows vps!

Only to run Ubuntu in WSL :-P

First-Root

@Falzo said:

@FR_Michael said:
Someone told me that @falzo also uses windows vps!

Only to run Ubuntu in WSL :-P

You dirty little lier...

Falzo

@FR_Michael said:

@Falzo said:

@FR_Michael said:
Someone told me that @falzo also uses windows vps!

Only to run Ubuntu in WSL :-P

You dirty little lier...

😆😆😆