ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)
1748169 Members
3530 Online
108758 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

 
Thomas Wunder
Advisor

'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Hi,
I installed a Debian Squeeze (AMD64) system on my new DL120 G6 and it worked (i.e. I was able to boot it without any Problems). I've got two disks attached to the P212 controller which is set up to use them as a RAID1 array and this array contains/contained the the system.

Because I was really desperate about finding no solution for the disk performance problem (this issue is solved in the meantime) i also did update the controller Firmware to the most recent version (it was 3.00 I guess).

Now, after experimenting very much and after doing multiple reinstalls of the Debian system (with different partition alignments and block-sizes) i had to realize that I wasn't able to boot any more, even though i did every step of the installation procedure exactly as before.

I also tried to do multiple attempts to install the GRUB boot loader (manually, using 'grub-install /dev/cciss/c0d0', and also double checked the device.map). It always reported that GRUB was installed successfully to the /dev/cciss/c0d0 and no error did occur.

The only message I get (after the boot summary screen) is "Boot Failed" which doesn't look like a GRUB-error message (it actually looks like there were no bootable drives attached) and I suspect it to be due to the P212 doesn't report the array to be bootable (or it even doesn't report it at all). Looking into the BIOS 'Boot'-Screen i realized that the Harddrive is not unfoldable to select the RAID-Array (but I think it was before).

I also tried to restore the BIOS factory settings which didn't help as well.

I'm really close to throwing the machine out of the window as I'm looking for a solution more than 10h now.
Can you give me any suggestions how to make the array bootable again? I there a known issue about this? I there another chance to get it working except for booting from a different disk which is attached to the internal SATA-Controller?

This box really drives me crazy

Thanks in advance for any hint!
20 REPLIES 20
Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

By the way this is the report from the CPQACUXE web fronted (i made it to run the cpqacuxe within a rescue system; I still can't boot regularly)

It seems to be virtually impossible to run the firmware installer for the 2.74 firmware within a recent Debian installation or on a Gentoo LiveCD.
(I also can't use the HP Firmware Update DVD as i have a really slow internet connection here and it will take more than five hours do download this iso file)

Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

By the way this is the report from the CPQACUXE web fronted (i made it to run the cpqacuxe within a rescue system; I still can't boot regularly)

http://tom.back-in-five-minutes.de/report.zip

It seems to be virtually impossible to run the firmware installer for the 2.74 firmware within a recent Debian installation or on a Gentoo LiveCD.
(I also can't use the HP Firmware Update DVD as i have a really slow internet connection here and it will take more than five hours do download this iso file)

Patrick Terlisten
Honored Contributor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Hello Thomas,

calm down. I can see that the logical drive is set as bootable. I would recommend to erase the MBR with DD and re-install GRUB. The system can't find any valid MBR. I think this is a result of you testing.

The configuration and install of a ProLiant is very easy. I did this a hundred times. There's no trick. :)

Regards,
Patrick
Best regards,
Patrick
Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Now i've tried to install Debian Stable (AMD64) to a fresh disk (on which I have additionally cleared the MBR prior to setting up the new partitioning and boot loader using

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/cciss/c0d0 bs=4096 count=100

and some other sectors too) which is a Hitachi Deskstar HDP725016GLA380 and which is currently the only disk attached to the Server and it keeps saying "Boot Failed" exactly as before.

I've read through the diagnostic report and I found that information too which says that the array should be bootable but it actually doesn't boot and it doesn't report it to BIOS as well (at least it seems).

The Install is exactly the same as on each other system at least if you don't use a special sort of disks with the RAID controller and don't know of the WritCache being disabled. There was actually Problem except for the poor disk performance without the WC before upgrading the controller firmware.
Have you already tried to upgrade the firmware of a P212 to version 3.00? Does your controller still boot?
The report doesn't show any failures and works great and the firmware upgrade procedure (CP012538.scexe) from

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=3885791&swItem=MTX-a2022caca9f645b39476d681a0&prodNameId=3885792&swEnvOID=2023&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=0

also reported having been successful, the only thing that doesn't work is booting (no matter whether it is Debian stable or testing and no matter how often i clear the MBR and reinstall the GRUB (which also always reported to be successful))
Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Here's a dump of the flash operation:

livecd ~ # ./CP012538.scexe

HP Enclosure ROM Flash.
Flash Engine Version: 2.06.10
Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.

Device [Smart Array P212]
Flash this device? [NO, yes, quit] yes
Preparing to flash devices on the array controller...
Requesting flash - this could take up to 15 minutes...
Flash complete.
The array flash operation succeeded.
Patrick Terlisten
Honored Contributor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Good morning Thomas,

I don't think that you problem is related to the firmware upgrade. I think it's a "layer 8" problem. :) Double check the BIOS settings.

Can you give us the output of fdisk -l?

Regards,
Patrick
Best regards,
Patrick
Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

I've checked my BIOS settings a couple of times but maybe I've missed something. Is there a particular option that you think might be misconfigured?

(As I mention I noticed that the boot order screen doesn't show a '+' in front of 'Harddrive' any more but i seem to remember it was there once. Pressing the return key while the 'Harddrive' was selected and the '+' was visible showed the RAID-Array (at least I think so).

As I said before I've also done a 'restore default settings' which also didn't help.

At the moment I don't have any access to the server and so I can't do a 'fdisk -l' since I'm not at my work place right now but I will be this afternoon and provide you with the information as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance!
gregersenj
Honored Contributor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

A sling shot.

You can check if the Smart Array is no longer boot controller:
Hit F8 at the Samrt Array prompt.
If you get a 4th. line in the main menu:
Select as boot controller.

Then it is no longer boot controller
arrow down to the 4th line and hit enter.

A BIOS / FW update should normally not caurse that, but someone did mention a known issue some months ago.

BR
/jag

Accept or Kudo

Thomas Wunder
Advisor

Re: 'Boot Failed' on Proliant DL120 G6 with P212 RAID-Controller

Hey gregersenj,
thanks for the reply.

I currently don't have physical access to the server (and so I can't tell it for sure) but I remember having only the items
1. create logical drive
2. view logical drive
3. delete logical drive
4. manage licenses
5. cache settings
I guess I would have noticed such an additional line to make the controller be bootable again. The report of the CPQACUCLI controller/array diagnostics tool says that the disk should bootable currently and that's why I suspect the whole thing to be a bug.
See http://tom.back-in-five-minutes.de/report.zip for more information from the diagnostics tool. This might be a BIOS problem too. I also tried to do a hard reset by pulling off the BIOS buffer battery but it behaves exactly as before.

You mentionend that you remember someone saying that there's a known issue? Do you know what he did?

Thank you very much!