Windows Server 2003 on Sun Fire X4100 Server

There was something interesting to do in office this week. They needed to install Windows Server 2003 on a Sun Fire X4100 server so that it could be used for running an anti-virus solution. It had RedHat installed previously but they didn't have license for Linux version of Symantac anti-virus.
  One'd think how difficult it could be..installing Windows...point, click, voila. It is actually like that in most of cases..but not in this one. Earlier it was Linux which needed  loads of tweaking, needed specialised drivers, dependencies and what not. But now, positions have changed. Linux supports most hardware out of the box unlike Windows.
 This became clear when we staretd the installation. It turned out that Windows didn't have drivers for SCSI hard disc of the X4100.  We needed to provide drivers during the installation from an  external source..a floppy of all the things. Considering that the server had no support for floppy drive, it could be a USB floppy drive only, but owing to certain "politics"it was not an option.  Then I tried Sun Integrated Lights Out Manager. 
Logged in using console, used every command possible, changed IP address, but that didn't work out either. This guide here  shows some of the steps used.
Then I adviced slipstreaming drivers inside the Server 2003 cd. I was told that they already did that. I asked the procedure and promptly banged my head on table. Their idea of slipstreaming was just copying the driver files on the cd and hoping that installer picks up drivers all by itself. No modifying other files to provide path of drivers or anything like that.
After I finishing damaging the table with my head, I downloaded another pdf  from Sun website and made them read the correct procedure. Its quite long for them..so there is a software called nLite  that can do all the dirty work in 4-5 point-click kind of steps.
No fun at all :|
All that ne needs to do is copying the Windows CD on hard disc. Give nLite the path of CD dump, drivers, chose option to make it bootable, unattended installation and what not...and click finish. It'll make an ISO that you burn on a CD. That CD will work perfectly.
Mission accomplished.
I had same problem with my older motherboard that didnt support SATA disks. Same procedure worked in that case too.

Solaris

Just for sake of experiment, I tried installing Solaris x86 version. Sun people are giving away the Developer Edition free of charge. I requested for a DVD and got one within 2-3 weeks
Link : http://developers.sun.com/sxde
  I've removed my 20GB disk and got an old 40GB. Kept XP and BT on 160GB disk. This meant I had to edit my current partitions. Needed to delete the BT and Games partition. After backing up my data went through the process. Kept 40GB disk unformatted and created necessary partitions on 160GB
Installation of Soalaris was quite easy, though it took 60-70 minutes to finish all the steps. I like the way most Linux and this Solaris get installed. You fill up all the options early in installation and rest of the process goes by itself without any need to supervise unlike Windows. Damned thing needs date time setting, license key, usernames, passwords etc. in the middle of installation. That means, you need to stay in front of the PC all the time while in Solaris, Linux you are free to do anything else, get coffee, read, anything.
    Once the instalation was done, LILO boot menu of BT was replaced by GRUB. In addition to Solaris it showed 3 Windows partitions. Solaris booted fine but windows needed some tweaking to get  working.
 Solaris had some other surprises. At first it has no GUI. Just command line. I was sure I selected the proper GUI installation option and had right system specifications (512+ MB RAM, 12GB + free HDD space). So started playing around,
Tried some Unix commands and after sometime finally got into Solaris Desktop.Its GNOME and behaves pretty much like it does on Linux installations, though looks different.  Default Solaris installstion is pretty much like Windows, barely enough to start working, but considering the fact that it occupies 11GB+ space, its kind of odd. Installing Linux software didnt work . There are separate packages for Solaris.
There isnt much to write about it now. I tried playing around, it isnt difficult to operate, no more than most Linux/Unix installations in market, but is of no use at home. Place where am working has 8 Sparc servres, 4 running RedHat, one Windows Server and rest Solaris. I guess I'll conduct all my experiments there only. ;)
Installed BackTrack3 again. It gave more problems than I anticipated. But managed somehow. Deleted Solaris and now PC is back to older config. If I feel like it, I'll use VMware or some other virtualisation software to run Solaris. Permanent install on HDD isn't worth it (at home)