Secure Path 4.0c installation hangs / agent times out

[Stephen Law]

I've been struggling for 2 days to get Secure Path 4.0c SP3 Workgroup Edition installed on a Windows 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Dell PE M905 server connected to an HP EVA HSV110 storage array.

I install Sp1 & reboot, Sp2 & reboot, ok. The SP3 install runs until it reaches a point where it tries to talk to/install RAIDISK.SYS, warning that it might take a couple of minutes, then after a pause the server becomes unresponsive, nothing runs (although icons highlight if clicked) and I have to boot the server to get it back.

When it reboots the Secure Path agent fails to start:

Event id: 7009: Timeout 30000 miliseconds waiting for the secure path agent to connect

Event id: 7000: The secure path agent failed to start due to the following error: the service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely manner.

The server is connected to the san with a 10gb test lun.

Device Manager/Disk Drives shows x4 Compaq HSV110 Compaq SCSI Array Devices, and x4 Compaq HSV110 Compaq SCSI Disk Devices.
The SCSI Raid Controllers section shows x4 Qlogic Fibre Channel Adaptors (driver version 9.1.4.17) but has an unknown device where I believe an entry should be fore a Secure Path device.

I have an identical in hw and os, patch level etc (as far as I can tell) machine, connected to the same storage with the same Secure Path version, which never gave me any trouble at all, so this is very frustrating. It failed yesterday before the server was connected to the san so we connected it in the hope that would fix the problem - but no luck.

Problem seems to focus around Radisk.sys but whatever I do I cannot get round the Raidisk.sys portion of the SP3 install (does the same actually with the SP2 2-9 patch, which we don't usually bother with).

To compound these difficulties I cannot uninstall Secure Path properly: Add/Remove programs lists Secure Path but only provides two options: to update or upgrade to 4.0c SP3 or exit the uninstaller - there's no uninstall option.
If I select to complete the update I get the same problem again - server grinds to a halt.

I've tried to enable the HS_Service for in depth debug logging but it fails to install - possibly too old for the OS.

I'm stuck in a loop here and am considering either rebuilding the server (which would be bad) or sticking my tongue in a power socket.

Please help!

[AWilliams_1]

Cant help with the secure path install/uninstall but I believe you shouldnt be using it anyway. You should be using MPIO for this environment.

[Stephen Law]

Can't use MPIO, the SAN guys tell me it won't work properly - our san switch firmware is too out of date, or something.

Other similar servers use this Secure Path version, and as I say an identical machine I built at the same time as this one is working ok.

Thanks anyway

[AWilliams_1]

Took me a while to find the appropriate article.
"Migration from HP Storage Works Secure Path for Windows v4.0C Service Pack 3 to HP MPIO Basic Failover DSM / HP MPIO Full Featured DSM"
at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?swItem=co-60439-1〈=en&cc=us&idx=0&mode=4&