Proliant 6000 setup and boot from CD

[Jason Antman]

Hello,

I just bought a used Proliant - a 6000 (Pentium Pro). I don't know what the previous config was, and don't think there's anything usable on the drives.

I'm having two issues - first, when I get the Proliant splash screen at boot, pressing F10 does nothing - I can't seem to access the BIOS in the way that seems to be suggested here: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00182008〈=en&cc=us&taskId=101&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=254916&prodTypeId=15351

Does anyone know how to access the BIOS on this machine?

Specifically, my problem is that I can't get the box to boot from CD when I put one in. All I get is a non system disk error (presumably coming from the SCSI drives, as I know the CD is fine).

Lastly, does anyone know of a Proliant Support Pack that will work on this machine?

Thanks,
Jason

[TY 007]

Hello Jason,

Locate Switch SW1, a six-position switchbank (S1-S6) that controls the security features and configuration.

S2 should be OFF:
You can change configuration information

S5 should be ON:
Clears passwords

S6 should be ON:
Clears NVRAM

Thanks

[TY 007]

Hello Jason,

>> Proliant Support Pack that will work on this machine?

Windows 2003 PSP 7.60 is the last version of the PSP to support ProLiant 6000 Server.

Thanks

[Jason Antman]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I'm looking to install openSuSE 10.2 on this box.

I won't go near Windows, which is quite a problem with the older Compaq hardware, apparently...

MOSTLY SOLVED.

I found an older SmartStart 5.50 CD from a (G I)DL380 that I got. Magically, I was able to boot this, though no other CDs will boot. I ran through the array config, sys config, etc. The problem, however, was that the System Profile Diskette is made through a Windows-only executable utility. I had a friend run it for me (someone who also happened to have a floppy drive and blank disk).

At this point, I have the system configured, but, as can be expected, it won't boot from CD. The system partition utilities has an OS installation option, but (yet again) asks for a boot floppy. I think I'll give a whirl at using the Smart Boot Manager floppy to try and book OS install from CD.

As to the PSP, I found some notes (http://blog.jasonantman.com/2007/03/managing-g1-proliant-servers-with.html) from when I setup my other proliants, which mentioned (as told to me by a HP Engineer) that HPASM 7.7.0-115 for SLES10/i585, in the DL380 G4 download section, should be "universal" and run on almost every archaic Proliant. I'll give it a whirl when I get the OS working...

But, my one remaining question, is whether there's any way to get this machine to boot from CD without a diskette?

[Jason Antman]

I've been playing around with it for the past few hours.

I can't get it to boot from CD, and I can't get the Smart Boot Manager (as suggested by openSuSE install docs) diskette to boot either.

Does anyone know how to install a modern (CD-bound) OS on this?

I would also consider trying openSolaris 10, but that is on *DVD* so I'd need to install via NFS or TFTP/BOOTP from a server which has a DVD drive and could mount it...

[TY 007]

Hello Jason,

>> found an older SmartStart 5.50 CD from a (G I)DL380
>> able to boot this, though no other CDs will boot
- 8X IDE Internal CD-ROM Drive
- May have issue with some 16X CDs

Get hold of 1 of these Newer Drives:
http://us.liteonit.com/us/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=140

Thanks

[Jason Antman]

Thanks for the advice, but unfortunately I was imprecise in my language.

The *version* is older. The physical CD itself is not only new, but was burned *in series* with the OS CD's that I'm trying to install, from the same spindle on the same drive. All have been tested OK in Generation I DL380, ML370, DL320, etc.

[Brian_Murdoch]

Jason,

Just make sure that the CD-ROM drive has the CS (Cable Select) jumper installed and not the MA (Master) or SL (Slave) jumpers.

Compaq servers can be fussy about this and the older G1's only ever used the CS jumper.

Worth checking.

Brian