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ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

 
InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

Hi all,

 

I am an intern at a local Integrated data and telecommunications company and am new to the server side of IT. I know some basic knowledge still being in college, but my knowledge is limited. 

 

My employer has two Hyper-V servers that he is trying to make redundant and to distribute the load across each server. However, he needs to update the firmware on them so he has me testing the Smart Update Firmware update for an HP Proliant DL785 G5 with the AMD Opteron 2.3GHZ Quad CPU, running a fresh install of Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64. 

 

However, when I put the disc in and get into the initial setup, the disc will take me through the automatic update and then say it's booting, boots off the DVD, gets to the second loading screen, and then gives me the following:

 

Warning!!! Unable to mount the file system

Dropping to a shell.  Good luck!

/bin/ash: can't access tty:  job control turned off

 

What is this error and what does it mean? I have read some other posts stating that the disc might be corrupt, but I have reburned the image on more than one disc and both failed, along with putting this image on a USB and attempting to boot from it and it still fails. Also, I have read that it's possible that the disc doesn't recognize some of the hardware in the machine. 

 

Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

13 REPLIES 13
Johan Guldmyr
Honored Contributor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

Howdy, 

 

which disc are you booting on? The SPP? http://www.hp.com/go/spp/download

InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

Sorry for the really long wait time for this response. I was waiting for an email to be sent to me saying there was a reply. So I never got one so I decided to check today as this issue isn't a company urgent issue.

 

Regardless, the disc I am using is on the driver support site:

 

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdHome/?sp4ts.oid=3942549&spf_p.tpst=swdMain&spf_p.prp_swdMain=wsrp-navigationalState%3DswEnvOID%253D4064%257CswLang%253D%257Caction%253DlistDriver&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

 

The connection was kind of being sluggish so I don't know if you'll get to the section. However, I did notice that the lowest clocked speed for when you type in the product, i.e. the ProLiant DL785, there was an option for a 2.8GHZ CPU, a 2.9GHZ CPU, and then a 3.1GHZ. Under that was just 'ProLiant DL785 G5.' I did click on the 2.8GHZ CPU just as it was the lowest clocked speed for the CPU. I wonder if this would have an issue with it.

 

Since it isn't loading for me at this given moment, I can't tell you what download I was getting. It was just the 'SmartUpdate Utility - DVD.....' and the '.....' was some other text in the link. I will continue trying to load it and post the result.

Johan Guldmyr
Honored Contributor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

Loaded for me now. Probably the "Smart Update Firmware DVD (American, International)".

 

But that one has not been updated since 2012 (so there are newer firmware versions out there for iLO, network cards, storage controllers and more).

Try the SPP which supports the DL785 G5. Hopefully it has fixes to the problem you are encountering.

 

Perhaps this problem occurs because you have too much memory in the server? :) There used to be some problems like that.

InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

Okay, I will download it, burn it, and then give it a try and let you know.

 

 

InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

I downloaded the SPP and it didn't work either. It got to the initial boot screen, got to 100%, then brought up the glowing HP, got about halfway through the loading bar and then dropped me into the shell again with essentially the same warning.

 

Warning!!! Unable to mount the file system [cdrom]

Warning!!! Unable to mount the file system

Dropping to a shell.  Good luck!

/bin/ash: can't access tty:  job control turned off

 

I honestly have no clue what is causing. Any other suggestions Johan?

Johan Guldmyr
Honored Contributor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

 

If you got any extra stuff connected to it like KVM, USB drive or USB CD-ROM or something you could try disconnecting those and using iLO for remote management. Got virtual media license? You don't have to put in the DVD at all.

 

You can also boot the server on an OS and run the firmware upgrades from there.

 

InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

There isn't anything connected to it, other than the USB mouse, keyboard, and VGA monitor.

 

I am unsure what sort of lincensing my employee has. I would have to check. It does have the clean install of 2008 R2 on it, I guess I could try to update firmware from there instead of booting off the disc.

Johan Guldmyr
Honored Contributor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

You could view the console from iLO to see if the SPP boots without any of those things connected. Seems unlikely though. Maybe there are some weird BIOS settings enabled? - Is possible to reset all to default.
InternforIT
Occasional Advisor

Re: ProLiant DL785 G5 Firmware Update

I don't know. Nothing out of the BIOS was jumping out at me that it was changed from the defaults. It was a bare server when we got it, and we had to put a harddrive in it and put 2008 on it to get it to run. I think it was already reset back to factory defaults. But can reset the BIOS anyway to see if it helps.