Booting / Installing WIN2003 Enterprise from SAN on RX2600

[Francois_20]

Could anyone please provide some info on how to install Win2003 Enterprise onto Symmetrix 8000 SAN, using Emulex 9802 FC HBA. How do I specify the Windows Drivers when installation is to begin? I am already writing to SAN, formatting partitions, and copying Offline Diagnostics to the disk, but when WIN2003 is to install, it states that no drives were detected.

[Iain Ashley]

According to the EMC support matrix, they do not support external boot with 64bit W2k3. The XP and EVA range do, but you'll need the 3.1 version of the Smart Set-Up CD.

See
http://www.emc.com/interoperability/matrices/EMCSupportMatrix.zip

Regards
Iain Ashley

[Francois_20]

Hi. Thank you for the reply. If you look on the matrix on page 101 under Windows O/S, and HP RX2600, you will see that it is supported.

I have also tried the "Load OEM Drivers" option from Smart Setup 3.10, but still everything loads up until Windows is started. There it bombs-out and state that no Drives are connected. This is surely just a driver issue? I am using the Emulex 9802-E FC HBA, and the drivers downloaded from Emulex Website.

[Iain Ashley]

Hi Francois,
Sorry, when I got the document yesterday it had all N's in the column! Either that or I am blind :)

Anyway, as well as the drivers you will need the efi bios utility available here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?pnameOID=402380&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=402378&prodTypeId=12169&swEnvOID=1060

In the Zip file there is a text doc called U500A5.txt. Follow the instructions for EFI and it should get you up and running. This doco is a bit messy, but all the info you need is there.

Hope this helps

regards
Iain Ashley

PS You must use a GPT partition, not a MBR, because 2k3.64 can't boot from a MBR partition.

[Francois_20]

Finally managed to setup Win2003 Enterprise. The issue was with the OEM Driver on the Smart Setup CD. I created the virtual floppy drive, and by means of a USB stiffy drive, managed to copy the newly downloaded driver into the "virtual floppy". The driver is 1.7MB, and I had to strip file ELXSTOR.PDB which is 835KB to successfully load the new driver into the 1.4MB available.

[Prashant (I am Back)]

Hi,

Just more infomration on the same if some one can share. How can we provide the drivers or does we require any kind of drivers under EFI to recognize the cards installed it can be SA/NetRAID/FC.

Regards,
Prashant S.

[Iain Ashley · Accepted solution]

If I understand your question, you need the drivers from the EFI package described above so that you can boot from san. It also contains the config utility which will allow you to configure the card's BIOS.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards
Iain Ashley

[Francois_20]

Hi

The Firmware and Driver for the EFI can be loaded using the Smart Setup CD. The card however needs to be supported from Smart Setup point of view. If not, a bootable CD should be created including the EFI Driver, as well as the Emulex Configuration tool. It can then be accessed using the drvcfg in the Shell. We are going to redo the installation on 22/10/2004, and fully document the exact procedure. I will then post it here.

Currently the OEM driver for the LP9802-E on the Smart Setup CD is not working. The way to fix this is probably to update the Smart Setup CD with the correct driver? The point being, with no stiffy drive, it is quite a challenge to load the correct driver into the "virtual floppy" As you can not simply cut the driver to CD and access it by pressing F6. Also, as said earlier, the complete driver is 1.7MB, and you only have 1.4MB available to add the driver. However, removing \ia64_free\elxadjct.pdb (Symbol file for adjunct driver)I managed to downsize the driver by 835KB, and Windows accepted it.

Regards
Francois

PS. lian, thank you for the effort made on responding to this post.

[Francois_20]

Hi

As promised, here is the full rundown on how I got the installation done.

Thank you to all that replied. The procedure's supplied by all the relevant parties are correct, the only issue is that the driver for the Emulex card on the Smart Setup CD is not working.

Regards

Francois

[Frederick McCormack]

Thanks a Million, Francois! You just saved me hours of research and failed attempts. I hope that I can reciprocate with a posted solution that would help you someday.
Thanks once Again,
-Frederick