DL 380 G5 Array 400 boot order issues Server 2008 r2 64 bit

[Barren23]

So my issue is explained exactly right here:  http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ESXi/P400-Logical-Array-Boot-Order-Issues/td-p/5281455#.UFzJYlExDj5

But in general, I load the server using smart start 8.7 b... after jumping through hoops to get the bios, ilo, and p400 controller firmware all updated because server 2008 would blue screen on the load.

So now, with raid 1 on two 300gb sas drives, it boots fine.  I join the domain and create a Raid 5 set with 4 other 146gb drives.  Upon reboot, I get in an endless loop of reboots with error messages saying that "no boot partition found".

In ACU, it looks like my logical drive for the Raid 1 boot set, has been moved to logical drive 2.. instead of 1, where it intially was.  How do I fix this?  The previous topic doesn't give the resolution.

I guarantee, if I delete my raid set, the system will boot again without issue, however, it's a file server, I'm going to need my raid 5 partition on the server to function.

Thanks much. 

P.S... .how come there is no boot option for your firmware loads?  It was a real hassle to load 2003 server on this system just so I could run the ilo and raid firmware updates.. just seems dumb.

[Daren Friday]

This may be a stupid question but why dont you create the RAID 5 first off rather than waiting till you join the domain?

During boot I think it's control F to manually create the drive then just boot the easy CD and install straight to the controller

[Barren23]

Well, I surely didn't think making a Raid 5 array would mess up the logical drive boot order...  The partition isn't even formatted yet.

I'll reload the machine again, this time I will create the raid 5 array first, then I will create the raid 1 array and load on the raid 1 to see if it works.

[Barren23]

And I've deleted all the partitions and I created a raid 5 set, then a raid 1 set... I load 2008 r2 x64 on the raid 1 set and it does not boot. "non system disk"... I would bet that if I delete the raid 5 set that it will boot.. but again, I need to have both.

[Barren23]

Reloading 2003 server again.. The only thing I can think of is that the firmware on my 146gb drives is out of date and causing issues... unfortunately, the firmware update says it doesn't apply to any of my hardware while running 2008 server.. so here I go again loading 2003.

Ugh.

[Barren23]

Loaded 2003 again.. updated the firmware for the hard drives.  Then I added a raid 5 set.. and formated it.. and boom, non-system disk on reboot.  Delete the partition and it boots.

[Barren23]

Okay, here is the resolution.

I can't say for certain if the bios update, ilo firmware update, p400 firmware update, or hard drive firmware updates resolved the issue, because after each one of those fixes, I still had the trouble.

However, after 6 hours on a support chat with HP today, we realized the physical cables on the controller card/cage array were backwards... so I swapped those cables, then deleted all partitions, recreated the raid 1, created logical drive, created the raid 5, created logical drive.

Loaded server 2008 and it worked.