ML110 G6 2008 Foundation Server R2 ROK Installation Roadblock

[Mike Collis]

Hi Team,

Pretty loyal HP customer here. Good products on the whole, reliable, and service is pretty good.

I've finally taken delivery of a new ML10 G6 for a small client splitting from a parent company and budgets are tight. They just need quality file sharing for the moment, so I thought we'd give Windows 2008 Foundation R2 a go. It all looks fine on paper, and HP's ROK pricing for this OS is very sharp. Shame the MS Action Pack does not include a copy so I could play with it ahead of time.

Unpacked the ML110 G6 which had a 250Gb SATA preinstalled. Opened it and installed another HP 250Gb SATA drive (nice of them to put a cable in the box with the drive). Powered on the machine, went into the BIOS, changed the SATA mode to RAID (so I can have a FakeRAID mirror), saved and rebooted.

Booted the machine for the first time, from the Easy Setup CD. I was disappointed that Foundation was not in the list of supported OS's for assisted installation. It's not *that* different from 2008 Standard! Grrrr. The CD has Version 1.0 printed on it. Jumped onto the product driver download area and downloaded a new version 2.2 ISO image to burn, and it came down at pretty reasonable speed thank goodness. Booted it - still no Foundation R2 in the list of supported OS's. Grrrrr! Turns out its the same F***ing version. Version 1.0 printed on the CD actually means version 2.2 if you boot the CD and hunt around for a version number. Thanks HP. I haven't got enough wasted time in my day already. I tried Server 2008 R2 Standard edition, thinking it could not be that different, but the installer looks for some sort of signature and would not proceed. It would have been nice if I could have cancelled at the point it was asking for the OS DVD repeatedly. I had to switch off the power.

Okie dokie lets do it the old fashioned way... OS DVD in, boot, the CD boots... does a check the hardware is HP, then I get an error message: SBSBIOSLock (heading) could not find the media (body). Googled it with zero results to my astonishment. There was not a whole lot I could do. The OK button shut the machine down. Eventually tried setting the SATA mode to AHCI. Success!

HP: Please get Server 2008 Foundation R2 onto the Easy Setup CD. I'm sure its not that hard. Also please sort out the ability to install directly onto a BIOS RAID from an HP branded Foundation R2 DVD. My DVD part number is 589229-001.

I have to deliver this server tomorrow, and if it has to be with Windows mirroring of the drives to meet the immovable deadline, so be it. This feels like a decent black mark on an otherwise very good track record with HP servers for us. I'll excuse the faulty SAS cable on the last ML350 G6 server I purchased.

Cheers
Mike

[wild_qwerty]

I've just had the exact same problem. Except once I try installing it after changing the drive type to AHCI it then says it cant find the file a:\answerfile.txt

[Mike Collis]

I've not tinkered with answer files yet (except for SBS2008 migration) so I don't know the process used or whether you've ticked a box by accident etc. Will just wish you luck and be interested to hear any result.

I researched Windows Mirroring further and found that Dynamic Disks were required, but researched and found some issues with backup/restore. Bit the bullet and purchased a SA P212 RAID Controller in the end. And then when it arrived without a cable I had to Sub 60 that!! We live and learn.

Further research showed HP removed the FakeRAID functionality from the ML110G6 (but annoyingly did not remove the BIOS entry to enable it). What's wrong with the most basic of servers having FakeRAID? I've used it very successfully on older ML110 generations (though I remember it being a pig to load the drivers up when installing Server 2003), and I have not heard of any problems with it (performance aside). I have a G5 running a RAID10 at a 10 person site (no staff growth planned) down the road running SBS2003 plus a SQL based accounting package used lightly by half their staff and it worked a treat. Just one example of a dozen I could pick out.

Except for on that G5 server I turned the drive cache on to try and speed installation, later forgetting to turn it off. When they had a power failure a few days later and the UPS shut down earlier than planned part way thru OS shutdown, the SQL and Exchange databases were scrambled. That took several hours to fix on a Monday morning. Not a good look, but my fault for misconfiguring an otherwise fine system. I gave them a heavy discount on the installation costs after explaining and apologising. :o7

[wild_qwerty]

It turns out that after i tried using the HP setup CD (the one that doesnt support 2k8 foundation), it left some junk on the hard disk. Once I cleaned that off and installed the OS onto a clean disk it worked fine.

The problem with the FakeRAID being removed but still available in the BIOS doesnt just confuse us. Before I found you post I had contacted HP technical support and the told them the model number, ML110 G6 and the guy looked it up and said to just set it to RAID in the BIOS. I told him that didnt work and we agreed that the server might just need a BIOS upgrade to help enable the RAID. So HP haven't even updated their own Technical people and documentation to say that RAID has been removed in the G6

The server is on site and running fine (we also had a tight deadline). I set it up using dynamic disks and a software mirror. Did you have a link to any info on how this can cause problems?

[Gavarustin]

I have the same problem. I installed in a past the HP Proliant server ML110 G2 G3 G4 G5 server and it have the embedded RAID controller, but in this model you don't have that.

After two week I installed my HP Prolaint ML110 G6 server with RAID 1.

To have RAID in this G6 model you must to add an optional HP P212/ZM Smart Array Controller and a HP NHP SAS/SATA 4 port cable kit.

I think is too expensive to have a RAID in this model(300-350$).I don't need a SMART Array controller I need just a RAID1 whit an embedded RAID controller.

[Mike Collis]

wild_qwerty this article/blog left me distrustful of dynamic disks, which I have never had great faith in but in reality also little experience: http://www.vistapcguy.net/?p=233

In an ideal world I'd have done my own testing around it, but I don't live on that planet. HP's online quickspecs for the G6 does indicate that a card is required for mirroring, but you have to read it pretty carefully which I eventually did. I waited 2 extra days for the G6 to come into stock at Ingram Micro. IM had an IBM box with 2008 R2 Foundation preinstalled in stock, but the processor was rubbish in comparison. Still, I would have made money on the IBM and had a solution that the customer would have been happy with, instead of losing money on the G6.

I ended up sending the customer a second invoice for the extra bits at cost price along with an explanation and invited him to make a contribution he was comfortable with, playing up that the solution was higher spec and should therefore last them longer. It helped that by coincidence I had a spare 256Mb cache module for the ordered P212/0mb that was left over after upgrading an ML350 with P410i/256mb to a 1Gb flash backed cache memory module.

[Anuar Obregón]

Been doing some testing with my ml110 G6 server.

It has the most recent firmware upgrade (march 3rd 2010) and Im using Easy setup CD ver 2.30

I found that I have the same errors that you when I use HP Branded Media (foundation or standard).

If I use a common Windows server 2008 R2 Standard media I dont have the "Could not find media error"

So... Dont use HP Branded media.

The problem here is that foundation in Mexico is only sold by HP.

I'll call tomorrow my providers tech service to see if they have a solution.

Best regards.

[Luca Sampietro]

After spendig perhaps 2 hours at phone with HP, the response was that in the

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 ROK (branded) HP media,

there is no information about the Smart Array B110i, which is the controller that you enable in BIOS when you set the disk controller option to RAID.

So, if you use the branded ROK media and you enable the RAID option in BIOS, the media doesn't recognise the hardware as HP and block the installation.

The problem is that here in Italy the 2008 R2 Foundation is sold ONLY in ROK version, so i have no chance to install a no-branded FOUNDATION media.

So, i decided to make a software raid in win2k8 and everithing worked fine. (tested)

I hope they are going to develop a new media with the correct HW information in future.

HTH,
Cheers

Luca

[Anuar Obregón]

I found a way to make windows server 2008 foundation work in my ML110 G6.

Use Easy Setup CD ver 2.30, select Retail Windows Small Business Server 2008 x64 as operating system.

Ignore memory size error.

Follow all instructions and thats all.

The problem here is that thereà ´s no Windows Small Business Server 2008 R2 on the list.

Best regards.

[kkz]

Trying to install Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation without luck.

Hv updated the firmware (Latest). In Advance Bios setup - Hdd config set to RAID.

Using Easy CD 2.30, selected Retail - Wins Small Business server 2008 x64.

I encountered problem:

This disc does not match the selected operating system. Missing: source/*amd64

I have : ML110 g6 with Intel® Xeon® X3430 (4 core, 2.40 GHz, 8 MB L3, 95W)

Any other work around to get M W S 2008 R2 Foundation to work with the embedded Raid controller?