I have been tasked to set up a lab server that will be used to build and
test various virtual hardware configurations. My plan was to use VirtualBox
on 64 bit Ubuntu 8.04 server.

Day 1:
Took possession of a new Dell PowerEdge 2970 server.
2 Quad Core 2.1 GHz AMD 2352 CPUs
16 GB RAM
1TB (4 x 500 GB) RAID-1 disks
Broadcom 5708 dual port NIC
24x IDE CD/ROM

Discovered the Dell system software and documentation is available only on
DVD. Since I overlooked upgrading to a CD/DVD drive, I could not use the
media delivered with the system (Thanks Mr. Dell!). Luckily Dell provided
ISO CD images for the important stuff on the DVD. So I popped it into my
WinXP laptop and burned a few disks.

Booted on the System Config utility, ran hardware tests, all good to go.

Inserted Ubuntu 8.04 Server AMD 64 disk I burned a few weeks ago. Ran a
check on the disk and discovered checksum errors. Back to the WinXP laptop
to download and burn a new install CD.

Boot the PowerEdge on the CD, verified check sums, all is good to go. Began
install and all went well through partitioning. Installation failed on
trying to format the drives.

Back to the WinXP laptop. Download and burn an Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop AMD 64
image and burn a disk. Boot the PowerEdge on the disk and start using the
trial option. Everything looks good. Click install from the desk top.
Installation goes well until after partitioning. Install fails on "copying
base system".

That's it, bedtime.

Day 2:
Use the WinXP laptop to download and burn an Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop 32 bit
version disk. Boot the PowerEdge on the disk using trial option. Boots ok,
verify that the OS only sees 4 GB of RAM (oh well). Click install from the
desktop. Install goes perfectly. System boots using only 25%% of the
installed RAM.

Reboot system on the server AMD 64 bit install disk. Run through install
process. I choose to erase the data on the partitions instead of formatting.
All goes well until failure on "Copying base system."

That's it, bedtime again (I can only work on this in the evenings).

Day 3:
Decided to seek help from the Ubuntu community via the alt. news group. Back
to the WinXP laptop. Open Outlook and hop into the usenet groups.
Discovered Verizon has removed all alt. news groups from their servers.

Now totally frustrated, I realized that in the last three days I have relied
on my WinXP laptop because it just works.

So, logged onto MSDN, downloaded and burned a WinSvr 2003 64 bit. The
install is going very nicely thank you. Tomorrow, I might actual get some
work done on the new server.

Later.

P.S. Hey Verizon, I got something for you to hear.