I have a chance to buy an EX485 server with 2gb of RAM running Celeron 2GHz processor. I would like to install WHS 2011 on this server.

1. What hardware upgrade to I need perform on this server in order for WHS 2011 to run smoothly?

2. Given the specs above, can I just install WHS 2011 as is without performing any upgrades?

I upgraded my processor to an E8400 after flashing the BIOS to the modded EX48x firmware (detailed here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11695). I put on WHS 2011 and didn't have any issues. I didn't run it for long since my EX490 w/WHSv1 was running so well, maybe a week or so, but now that my HDD's in my WHSv1 are failing I'm going to switch over to WHS2011. If you do flash your BIOs I would suggest making a backup of your recovery partition by using these instructions (http://mediasmartpodcast.blogspot.jp/20 ... sb_09.html). Otherwise you may run into the problem I did in this post (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13061) if you ever need to do a system recovery. My assumption is that the BIOS flash wipes out your system recover partition. Using the method above you will create a bootable USB stick to get the recover console back.

Good luck!

I'm banging my head against the wall trying to make this exact upgrade happen.
I have the VOV KVM, I've tried USB and DVD installations, even tried the hacked ROM, I just can not get it to install wihtout rebooting multiple improper times in the install and then never completing. I even tried a few different hard drives.

Even though I backed up the original ROM I think I missed something since I can get into the SMI HP boot, but it's sloooow to get there and then never answers to server recovery.

What could I be missing? this sounds like it shouldn't be this hard.
I'm at my last straw and trying an install in a desktop and then I'll swap the HD into the MSS.

@ pfisher13

Before you change anything on your EX485 I would copy the SMI files from your server. If you do not change the processor there should be no need to modify the BIOS but this is up to you. Even if you never change the OS on your server I would urge you and others to expose the SMI area and copy the files for safe keeping. Then you need to create a bootable USB Flash Drive and simply copy the SMI Files to the bootable flash drive and put it away for safe keeping. There is a ton of posts regarding the SMI on the site so perform a search to find out additional information.

Also take the time to search the site for those who have gone through changing the OS on there EX48x to see what their experiences were. Read all you can to help you form the best opinion on what you have in mind. Some have ran other OS software only to want the original OS back and were unable to do so because the SMI area was compromised and thus non-functional.

So read everything you can then decide...

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8