Problems with SPP Version 2014.02.0(B)

[BradV]

I downloaded the ISO image and extracted the swpackages directory and tar'd that up.  Copied it to my proliant servers.  In my one enclave I have a c7000 with 16 BL460c G1s, 3 DL380 G5s, 1 DL580 G4, and 7 DL380 G7s.  I ran hpsum on five of the BL460cs and all of the DL380s.  When it was completed, all five of the BL460cs and two of the DL380 G5s would not start.  iLO said they were powered on, but I could not get any video output from them.  It was not until I had HP come in and replace the motherboards that I was able to get them back online.  Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[waaronb]

There's another thread about that SPP causing Windows issues with the network card driver 7.8.50.0 apparently (it would blue-screen on the ndis driver).

But you said you weren't getting any video at all, so it sounds like something else went horribly wrong, like some firmware update to the system BIOS perhaps?

Did HP give you any other hints about what they thought the problem might have been, so if anyone else had the same problem, it might give them a clue?

[BradV]

All of my servers are RHEL 6. iLO would report the blade was powered on, but I could see nothing through the java console, through the onboard administrator to the console, or from attaching a console to the front of the blade.  Nothing, just black.

No, the techs have no knowledge really of SPP.  They just replaced the motherboards and got the systems to start.  So, they are finished in their minds.  However, I have many more systems I should be applying the SPP to but won't until I know what the problem is.  Luckily these servers were in my development environment.  So, just held up development for a couple of days. 

In addition, even after replacing the motherboard, one of the DL380 G5s kept powering itself off daily.  I saw nothing in the logs other than power removed.  This stopped once I re-installed the server.

On every running of this version of SPP I also had 5 packages fail.  As far as I'm concerned, the failures were due to poor coding on HP's part.  An example:

file /usr/share/doc/hponcfg/readme.txt from install of hponcfg-4.3.0-0.x86_64 conflicts with file from package hponcfg-4.1.0-0.noarch

It looks to me that HP decided to switch from a generic rpm to a bit specific versioning.  In that case, they should have removed the noarch rpm before trying to install the x86_64 version.

I'm just not sure how to make sure someone at HP is looking at this very serious problem.

Regards

[waaronb]

Yeah, I've noticed a strange uptick in incidents with HP updates doing bad things.

I like to get the latest versions installed, but honestly I'd probably do myself a favor by sticking to updates that fix a problem I'm having, at least until HP's QA folks get on the ball a little more.

[BradV]

I wonder if they are going with the mantra that young and cheap is adequate?  :(

[waaronb]

I'll just say that HP is one of the biggest proponents of increasing H-1B visas and leave it at that. :)

[BradV]

I'm still trying to get someone at HP to acknowledge the problem.  Of the three DL380 G5s, I had to replace the motherboard on two of them.  The one that I did not replace the motherboard on seems to be fine.  The other two kept rebooting themselves.  I did a complete re-install on both of them.  They are still rebooting.  I'm not sure what else to try.

Also, attached are the rpm errors I saw on every single install.  To me, these errors show fundamental flaws in HP's rpm installation scripts.

[BradV]

Does anyone know how to contact the SPP team?  The onsite maintenance folk only do hardware.  This SPP really caused a lot of damage to my servers and I need to find out why and how to prevent it in the future.  :(

[BradV]

I'm still trying to get anyone from HP to even acknowledge the problem.  :(

I received a recommended alert for my proliant servers yesterday that seems to indicate a new version of SPP has been released:

HP Service Pack for ProLiant (ver 2014.06.0)
Driver Alert
Link: http://alerts.hp.com/r?2.1.3KT.2ZR.175Inq.KkeaGm..T.fipQ.8XbE.bW89MQ%5f%5fDOYMFTa0
Priority: Optional
Products: BladeSystem, ProLiant Servers, Software
OS: Linux,Windows,Other Legacy OS
Release Date: Jun 10 2014

However, the link does not work and going to the SPP page does not show that version.  :(

[BradV]

I opened another case and simply got the reply that I should not have been using SPP with G1 and G4 servers.  I should continue to use PSP instead of SPP.  I recall that HP told us to stop using PSP and to use SPP instead.  I do remember looking at the supported system list for SPP late last year and I did see BL460c G1 and DL380 G5 listed.  I just checked and the latest version of PSP I can find is from two years ago.  I had asked him if drivers and firmware were still getting updated in PSP.  He said they were.  I don't understand.  :(