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Headless Windows 2000 Servers?
Ichabod Gates asks: "I have a home network with a few Windows 2000 servers that I run without monitors/keyboards/etc. the only cables attached are power and network. The servers are P200's with not enough RAM and whatever spare parts I can scrounge up for them and I admin them all using terminal services. Everything works fine and the uptimes are decent enough considering the power problems here. Due to a fixed frequency 19inch monitor, I had to shuffle video cards around till I found one that suited. This led me to attempt to remove all the unnecessary cards from the servers, just to make some spare parts available. This went fine until it became time to remove the VGA cards: the machines proceeded to boot up to the point where they would respond to ping requests, but then they'd reboot and repeat the process. I've had a reasonable search around and haven't found any definitive statement that says Windows 2000 can't run without a VGA card." What? You don't want to see the pretty GUI that Microsoft has spent billions in developing? You heathen!
"I have found a page saying that the Windows after XP will be the first to make it possible. There are expensive Compaq cards that make it possible I believe. but I think they require certain servers, and besides, my budget is $0. I am just wondering if the Slashdot community could offer any suggestions or leads?"
I poked around microsoft's site and found this kb article about building server appliances, which may or may not meet your needs. I did notice that the hardware requirements for w2k pro, w2k server, w2k advanced server, xp, and xp pro all listed VGA display adapters as a requirement. I *think* that you may be able to get win2k datacenter servers without VGA boards, but those boxes are all designed around the vendors hardware so it would probably be pretty easy for them to drop VGA support if they didn't want it. I did think it was funny that Microsoft Services for Unix was a requirement for installing their Server Appliance Kit. I kind of expected them to use CIFS instead of NFS for some reason..... :)
If I were you I'd just throw some cheap VGA board in there and not plug a monitor in. That way you can remote admin it with VNC or Terminal Services or pc anywhere(ugh!) or whatever, but if you run into "big trouble" you can always plug in a monitor/keyboard/mouse. Win2k is ROCK SOLID so I don't think you'll ever have problems with it
How sure am I? Well, before I left Microsoft, I was a developer working on headless support for Windows XP (work that I think will first appear in the server version of XP, which I think is going to be called Windows .NET server). And the dependency was there then in the shipped Windows 2000, so unless it was removed in a service pack, it is still there.
Actually I'm surprised you can even get the machine booted far enough to ping it.
There were some BIOSes out there that allow booting without VGA so it's not a pure BIOS limitation.
There is a guide to "lights out operation" (a term Microsoft sometimes uses which may help you in your search) posted here on Microsoft's site. It is interesting for its hardware solutions but it is 3 years old and covers NT 4 (which did not have the VGA requirement).
- adam
Budget $0
Windows 2000 Server - $700
Now, his budget is $0 yet he managed to cough up $700 for EACH $150 MACHINE? Sorry guy, but next time just cough up $20 for a cheap video card. You don't even need a monitor to install something like the NVIDIA 128ZX($25 after shipping), drivers are already there. Just hit enter a few times after its been up a while and restart.
Mod me to hell, whatever. You know this is what is really going on.