[CentOS] HP Proliant ML150 : how do I access disks ?

Wed Feb 17 13:12:22 UTC 2010
Niki Kovacs <contact at kikinovak.net>

Hi,

Up until now, I've only installed Linux either on "desktop" hardware, 
meaning one of the desktop PCs in the LAN acted as a server machine for 
the network, or I rented some dedicated server somewhere in a datacenter.

Last week I bought some server hardware, a used HP Proliant ML150. It's 
the first time I am dealing with this sort of hardware. The hardware was 
sold "as is", without any warranty.

When I open the front cache, there are six small "drawers", and the 
bottom two of them each contain a 72 GB hard disk.

I inserted a CentOS 5.4 install CD (1 of 6), and the installer (linux 
text) booted correctly. But when it comes to partitioning, it "sees" no 
disk.

Unlike the usual desktop hardware, there seems to be a myriad of 
configuration options, and I'm a bit lost here. So first things first. 
How do I configure this machine so the CentOS installer can actually 
recognize my two inserted hard disks as such : say, sda and sdb or 
similarly ?

Any suggestions ?

Niki Kovacs