HP Proliant DL380 on Windows Server 2008, Driver Install… Epic FAIL!

I recently was hired as Manager of Information Technology for one of California’s largest importers and exporters of exotic rock; granite, marble and what not. After looking at our current infrastructure I knew I was going to have to bring some of my personal equipment. After the first week I decided we would begin the process of changing server operating systems over to windows 2008 server as rebuilding the entire network was going to be necessary. As I began the process I decided I would install windows 2008 server on my HP Proliant DL380 which was perfect for the new application server role. Windows 2008 installed perfectly with no problem until of course it came to installing the network utility drivers. I spent a good 2 hours looking for help on HP forums, Google and anything else we normally use as information specialists but ended up with nothing. I decided to continue looking for help and found nothing so I decided that I would simply try to run the driver installation in compatibility mode. After a bit of playing I was able to determine that Windows 2008 Server and 2008 Server R2 are somewhat considered different versions, after all the drivers would not install on regular R2 mode but had to dumb down the compatibility to Regular windows 2008 server. After this everything installed with no problem so I suggest if you’re installing Server 2008 R2 as an operating system make sure you install drivers as regular 2008 server through compatibility mode or else you will get the “this install could not complete because the correct operating system was not found” prompt.