Can Solaris 9 be installed on Proliant ML350 g3

[Albert Culleton]

Can Solaris 9 or 8 be installed on the Proliant ML350 G3 . The Solaris HCL does not mention support but it still may be possible . I have tried an initial install but it hangs during the install ?

[JohnWRuffo]

Albert:

Did it hang before or after the install of the DU disk?
Did your ML350 have a SmartArray Controller or just the on-board SCSI. I have heard of installs hanging because there was no "compatable driver" for the SCSI HBA.

[Alzhy]

Are you installing on a RAID LUN? If your Proliant sports some sort of a SmartArray RAID COntroller - is it even recognised by Solaris - much less supported?

[Albert Culleton]

John
I have tried installing with HDD conected to both and the install seems to get a little further if I use the on board scsi.
Using the HDD connected to the Raid controller the following occurs
First i boot from Cd and the get to add the supllemental driver disk , then it gets to a certain stage and creates a mini file system on the drive and wants to reboot .
After a reboot it starts the install from the hard disk ( on the raid driver ) and you need to install the Supplemental driver disk for the Raid card again and it then trys loading drivers but hangs at loading the driver ata.bef with the message

The device driver, solaris/drivers/isa.125/ata.bef, cannot be loaded. the real mode driver is bad .
It also has disk read errors

: disk read error, sector 9891.


Using a driver for Solaris provided by compaq allows the cd install to pick up the logical disk and actually create a file system here and copy over the cd contents to create a mini boot system for installation. When this system boots is generally hangs when loading drivers after the basically .

I will start again and try to see if i can install the OS with the HDD on the onboard SCSI controller , to see if that works , but I do want to use the raid card if possible.

[JohnWRuffo]

I am fairly certain it is not ata.bef that is causing the error... it is the DU. Since the dawn of these DU, there were some drivers in some systems that would hang up and work just fine in others.
The systems I worked on would get confused on the Ultra2 / Ultra3 SCSI controller driver (i.e., looked like it was trying to load both for the same device) and then hang on the default Solaris driver pack from the CD. I would have to go though the whole install and then add additonal drivers (the rest of the DU) at the end.

[JohnWRuffo]

Albert:

Did you read my post to Marc in this thread:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=298987

[Albert Culleton]

Yes I had previously read your post to marc and these suggestions helped .

With the proliant ml350 g3 ther is no option in the RBSU. So i set it to Other OS, and then had to set full table mapped under advanced options.
I have aslo downloaded the Solaris 9 DU and it is being recognised in the install as cpqary3 - Device Driver
boot controller order is set to the Smart Array.

Heres What happens.
It then scans the system , and the Smart array controller is listed on the list of identified devices . It then starts loading and asks you were you want to boot the install from and lists the Cd Drive as the only option .
It then runs the Solaris web Start installation and you choose your installation language .


The you get to the Solaris installation Program , where it tests the mouse and vga , this goes okay

Then the Console appears and ask you to choose a Swap slice at the beginning of the disk of size 512 MB on disk /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s1

After creation it begins copying the mini-root to the disk .
It then tells you to press enter to reboot and remove the cd's and floppies and to sleect "F4 add driver" so that the install time media can be processed again.


After the reboot ... the systems starts from the hard disk and botts to The Solaris Device configuration assistant where you press F4 to add driver and supply the Array driver diskette again. Once installed the systems starts loading drivers again but stops with and error

The device driver , solaris/drivers/notisa.010/cadp160.bef, cannot be loaded. The real mode driver is bad.
It also has several messages
: disk read error, sector 10773

Now if I move the same hard disk to the Built in SCSI controller and take out the raid card form the system the install get past this point and alows you to boot past this indicating that the insrtal lmedia nd disk seem okay when used against without the raid Driver.


Any suggestions welcome ?
Regards
Albert

[Alzhy]

Its plain and simple - your SmartArray Controller is simply not supported by the cadp driver... Is this the latest Solaris9 and DCA that you can get hold of? Have you asked Sun?

[JohnWRuffo]

Ah! The evil cadp160.bef driver! That is the little bug I ran into as well.

You may want to install your own driver during the install:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/supporteditorial.jsp?supportCat=/Product/ASC-29160&prodkey=CADP160&cat=/Product/ASC-29160

Pull down the one from Adaptec and make a floppy.

Let me know what you find? -john