DL380 and DL360 G4 issue booting into ADS (Automated Deployment Services)

[Ben Klockner]

I cannot get the new G4 servers to boot into the Deployment agent of ADS. I experimented with RIS and had the same results.

So far I have added the NIC and Array drivers to ADS and updated ADS with the hotfixes. The server boots into PXE without any problems. I can load virtual floppys and have it run other commands, but they all need to be outside of the deployment agent.

I have other models of the 380s and 360s and they dont have any issues. So at this point I dont think there is a problem with ADS.

The last line says that its booting to the deployment agent, the screen goes blank, then the server reboots. It seems to happen when the server is about to start to load the OS into memory.

[Jerry Debner]

Ben,

Does the event log show that it is failing on any devices? This might be your best source of what is going on?

I know we always make sure the virtual boot device in system setup is disabled, although I can't remember if this ever solved a problem like this.

One other thing (that we seem to forget), did you restart the Deployment Agent Builder service after integrating the new network and RAID drivers?

I would be interested in hearing what the solution is as we are about to incorporate the G4 series as well.

Jerry

[Ben Klockner]

At this point I wish I had any kind of error message. The windows event logs do not show anything at all and the ADS logs just say that the sequence was stopped because the device was rebooted.

I tried disabling the Virtual Boot Device and I have had it enabled but it did not seem to change anything.

In terms of the DA Builder I have restarted it and the server many times. I have even tried parsing the INF files to work with ADS (even after I applied the hotfix for this issue).

The most painful part of updating the drivers is that they havent really changed. The hardware is in fact different but the drivers have not changed. I updated them anyway to see what would happen. I believe the controller is now a 6i and this could be the reason. In the past when I would have this problem is was usually associated with the NIC drivers in ADS.

[Jerry Debner]

something to try:
Do you have an extra 5302/4 controller to test with to target the controller? We just had a problem with building with the 6404 controllers with our ADS images. This would at least possibly elimate or target issues with the controller.

So you are not even seeing a message such as: "Windows could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK. Windows failed to build a bootable RAMDISK image. Rebooting in 5 seconds." If you are seeing this by chance then it is tied to needing running those 2 hotfixes.

[Jerry Debner]

Ben,

forget that last suggestion. We just got ahold of a 380g4 this afternoon. We tried putting in a 6404 controller (which we know works with ADS), and no luck whatsoever.

I plan to open a call with Microsoft and see if they can reproduce.

[Eugene_27]

I was wondering if you ever resolved this? I have the same exact issue...we have a DL380 G4 and it reboots after I invoke the F12 for our RIS server.

Thanks,

[Jerry Debner]

Eugene,

There are at least 3 calls opened with Microsoft PSS on this problem. Everyone that is having the problem is on the P51 Bios level. I have tested on a 7/22 and 8/26 bios dates (or something close to that. Apparrently, HP has succussfully had this work on on an older BIOS level. There is at least one case opened with HP (I'm not sure of the case number). There should be a fix soon for this.

[Eugene_27]

Jerry,

Thanks, for the update!

[Tarek Kawach]

Ben:

Look at this Thread

It looks like HP will be coming up with firmware that will fix your issue.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=707961

Tarek.

[Joseph Michaud_1 · Accepted solution]

Hey all. This issue can be resolved by changing the IRQ for the SmartArray 6i from 7 to 5. The reboot issue is apparently caused by an IRQ conflict.

Luckily, it is booting to the vfi boot floppies properly, so I believe this change can be set in the .HWR file using Conrep to resolve it programatically.

Good luck!

Joseph Michaud
Bank One