topic Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4 in Server Management - Remote Server Management

Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Fadai — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 07:54:39 GMT

Hello,

We are running iLO 4 for ProLiant DL380 Gen9 with Advanced Lisence.
When mounting .iso for CentOS 7 through Java console the server does not boot from it.
Tried the Legasy Boot mode, changed the boot order - no luck.
Looks like it thinks that nothing has been inserted into Image file - CD/DVD Rom. That's why it continues with HD, followed by USB and then network boot.

Also, when trying URL and clicking "Connect", we don't see the file path of the .ISO image change to a URL containing the IP of the client computer.

Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Torsten. — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:26:55 GMT

Just in case it is a problem with Java, did you try the .NET or HTML5 remote console?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Fadai — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:29:46 GMT

Yes. We tried that too before.
Does the client PC have to be pinged from the iLO server for this to work?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Torsten. — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 09:33:27 GMT

Did you try with an URL only or with an ISO image too?

Are there any firewalls between?

Even a local firewall at your remote PC may cause problems.

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Fadai — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 10:57:58 GMT

We tried both URL and image. None boots.
Firewalls were there before. Turned it off back then. But didn't help either.

Does the client have to be pingable from the iLO server for this to work?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Scott_K — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 14:09:42 GMT

I'm having the same problem running iLO 4 for ProLiant BL460 Gen9 with Advanced License. Did you ever figure it out?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Torsten. — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 15:47:59 GMT

If server is in UEFI mode, bootable ISO must be UEFI too, in legacy mode you need a legacy ISO.

Did you check that?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Scott_K — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 15:52:24 GMT

I'm using a web server to serve the ISO file I downloaded from centos.org. Does it have to be reformatted for EUFI mode or is that only if using a USB stick?

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Torsten. — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 15:53:52 GMT

Don't know what ISO you are using, but if the ISO isn't compatible with UEFI you have to boot in legacy mode.

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Scott_K — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:43:31 GMT

Torsten, thanks for taking the time to help. Here's more detail of what I'm doing.
I downloaded the iso file from http://mirrors.usinternet.com/centos/7.9.2009/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso and copied it to the file filesystem of an existing blade server. I'm running python3 built-in web server from the directory where the iso is located:
python -m http.server 8000

I have verified from other servers that I can download the iso file with:
curl -o foo.iso http://192.168.1.2:8000/CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso

I verified from the new blade server that I'm provisioning that I can ping 192.168.1.2 (using hpoem_ping from the CLI).

From new server's iLO, I entered scripted media URL as "http://192.168.1.2:8000/CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso" and clicked "Boot on Next Reset". I've tried various combinations of boot order with UEFI, Legacy Bios, CD/DVD Drive, , etc. My web server show GET requests for the iso but it doesn't boot to it and tries to PXE boot.

At one point, I used system utilities to define a preboot network URL and it booted the iso files (but they eventually failed _ I think because drivers hadn't been loaded). But it confirmed to me that the iso file was accessible to the new server.

This server is remote and I'd like to provision the OS without having to physically connect a USB stick (I'm also not sure if I have the custom cable needed to connect USB to a BL460 blade server).

Am I completely misunderstanding the purpose of URL CD/DVD-ROM virtual drives? I orginally started by loading the iso file to upgrade Intelligent Provisioning software because I think the latest version has settings for CentOS 7. When that didn't work, I tried to just boot the CentOS iso itself.

Re: Not able to boot from through CD/DVD in iLO 4

Scott_K — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 17:47:26 GMT

I really didn't expect it to have an effect but I installed apache and configured it to serve the CentOS iso file and used scripted media to point to the apache server. Worked first time and booted to the CentOS installation screen. I wasted so many hours trying to use an easy web server. Thanks for your help though.