Possibility of Win 8.1 on Dell server?

[Paul Rodgers]

How much of a hassle am I looking at if I were to attempt to install Win 8.1 on a new Dell server?

Because people will ask, I want to roll my own NVR for a Ubiquiti UVC system, but I want redundant PSUs and rackmount without paying for an unnecessary server license.

 

[Mike McCall]

Assuming 8.1 Pro, I don't see any obvious problems. Redundant PSU's should be handled by the MB, though the OS is unlikely to be able to monitor them.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You may have an issue with drivers....or may not. Depends on the particular hardware, how old or new it is, and "if" you can find drivers.

I remember back around 8 or 10 years ago, some "cheap" 1x man show real estate agent purchased a small Dell server...wasn't a good 300 or 400 series, but if I recall one of the "baby" PowerEdge models that was basically a glorified desktop. Except he purchased XP Pro for it instead of Windows server.

It had some onboard fake-RAID controller that I could not find generic drivers for, and Dell only published drivers for a server OS on their website. It took me a loooong time to get WinXP installed on that...slipstreaming install CDs. I "think" I still had something leftover in Device Mangler that never settled in properly.

Since it's for yourself..may be worth a try. Not something I"ll ever do again for a client though...what if something happens and you need support...you won't get it.

 

[TredCS]

Built something similar recently for a non-profit (only Win7 Pro instead of 8.1). The non-profit had a limited budget, and the software that they use needed Win7 instead of a server OS. We strongly recommended that we get server hardware for them, to which they agreed. The server was a low-level Dell PE with upgraded PERC controller - best we could do with their budget. After three months in production, the server locked up and went down hard (inevitably late on Friday afternoon), and would not boot back up. In troubleshooting with Dell, we had some difficulty getting them beyond the fact that it was a non-standard configuration - eventually, they would work with us, but initially with each tech, we had to work to convince them that this clearly wasn't related to the OS (eventual diagnosis was bad HDD that punched a hole in the array). We finally got it straightened out (replaced all HDDs and controller, built server from scratch and restored from backup), but I also would be unlikely to recommend this to a client again.