Frustrating install routine

[acs]

Not so much a rant, more a lesson learned!

I had to do a server for a growing business, basic needs ATM however basic domain, 10 users maybe mail in the future.

So I did my research and found Zentyal and thought great! So I downloaded the free version and tried to install it (I have set a few basic Debian servers and can get about OK on them). So I go to install it and predictably run into issues straight away. The disk partition tool simply doesn't work, asks me if I want to use an intel raid with Mdam containers and next if I want to use the sata drives. No matter what I press there is no option to actually define partitions all I get is; no defined root partition please set one.
Time is tight and so I have a brain wave. I buy MS server 2012, 20 mins later it has installed without a hitch and two hours later I have a domain with VPN, all the shares and a free mail server running I got from the tinternet!
My point is I realized today why all I see in offices  are MS servers, yes they cost, however the £250 to buy it suddenly seems great value for money instead of wasting hours trying to get Zentyal going. Its very sad as I love Linux, however it simply isn't up to scratch. I thought I would share my experience even if I do get flamed and slated for my post. 

[gabriel.gheorghiu@abt.ro]

Hi,

I think you made something wrong.
Until I learned pretty well to configure Zentyal, I made a lot of new installations from scratch without problems.
The only time (first time) when I had issues during installation was because of installation kit (something was wrong during download or during write on cd).

Also could be issues with your hardware (compatibility issues). Did you try to install Ubuntu on that hardware? If it works, you must change the installation kit (first steps, including hdd configuration are common).

Kind regards,
Gabriel

[jbahillo]

Also, make sure your disk drives are supported by current LTS version of Ubuntu. Probably your hardware is configured to use some kind of fakeraid which is not supported by Ubuntu. Unfortunately, Many servers I've see from HP and Dell come with this, and Uuntu only supports AHCI (no RAID) mode