Booting up fro SAN -

[kishanb]

Hello All & Greetings.

I am working on a few different c7000 enclosures, some with bl460c G1 and some with bl460c G6 blades. All of them are running Windows Server 2003, which have been installed as SAN bootable OS. All the installations were deployed using the TPM image.

Now, not everytime but sometimes, upon rebooting the server, for some reason, during the bootup process, it does not find the SAN and as a result goes into OS install mode.

I would like to know if anyone has seen this happen and what am I doing wrong? and how can I fix it?

Thanks,

kishan

[Viveki]

Hi Kishan,

Do you mean,the set up is working intermittently? If yes, this might be a communication issue between the storage and the blades.

What is the storage attached? What is the OS version?

Please update the BIOS and HBA FW to latest for all the servers.

[Adrian Clint]

Are the switches ok as well?

Is the HBA firmware and driver, SAN switch firmware and SAN firmware all in a compatible supported matrix?

[kishanb]

Hello & greetings.

To answer some of the points raised in your respondses:

1. The OS is Windows Server 2003 Enterprise.
2. Yes, the iLO, OA, etc. firmware is the latest.
3. Yes, the bootup process, for lack of a better description, trips up and does not find the SAN - intermittently. Indeed, if I repeat the bootup process a couple times, it finds the SAN again properly and boots up the OS.

Now, I just don't understand how or why it is doing this. As is to be expected, SAN folks can't figure out why the bootup process is doing this - so that leaves it either as an OS issue or the HP Blade enclosure / server issue. Hence, my posting here on the HP forum!

HTH. thanks,

kishan

[Adrian Clint · Accepted solution]

Kishan

Repeat question - as this is where the problem probably is.
Is the HBA firmware and driver, SAN switch firmware and SAN firmware all in a compatible supported matrix?
Ask the SAN manufacturer for this.

Compatible is not always the latest.

Are you using SAN switches in the blade enclosure?

Do you have rackmount switches also SAN booting that have no porblem?

[kishanb]

Greetings, Adrian.

I have again checked my firmware and found out that some were not, in fact, the latest / or per the Compatibility Matrix. I rectified this and am confident this will now fix the issue. I re-booted the blades a few times and did not have any issue so far. So, I guess, for now, at least the issue is resolved.

Thank you for all your help. However, I will be posting a new firmware related thread and look forward to help / suggestions from others as also yourself. Again, thanks a bunch!

Kishan