Proliant DL140 and "approved USB devices"

[David Sloane_1]

I've got four Proliant DL140 servers as part of a development lab. These machines have no floppy drive and no(standard) CD-ROM drive, but they do have four USB ports each.

I've been able to set one up by booting with a USB floppy drive and loading an image from the network. Now it's got Win2000 Server, SP2. So I need to do some updates. I've tried plugging in an external CD-RW/DVD drive (Addonics AEP DVRW 248 UM). The BIOS and Windows both recognize the device, but I haven't been able to A) boot from the CD or B) read a CD once Windows is running (explorer.exe hangs).

According to the README.TXT file (attached) in the DL140's "Startup, Documentation and Utilities CD" I can use "approved USB devices*." The asterisk refers me to www.hp.com, but I can't find any references to approved devices for use with this server (or any HP product). I can understand not being able to boot to some USB CD drives, but reading from one doesn't seem like much to ask. Maybe Win2k SP4 will fix this issue, but I'm not optimistic.

I know I can buy the optional internal CD-ROM drive for the DL140, but for another $100 per server I'd rather not.

Has anyone heard of this approved USB device list? Does it exist?

If not, can anyone confirm that a USB CD-ROM will work with this hardware (and the make and model)?

Thanks.

-David

[Ken Henault]

I've had good luck booting from the TEAC CD-210PU, though I haven't tried it on the DL140.

[David Sloane_1]

Ken - thanks for the suggestion.

Windows 2000 service pack 4 didn't improve matters. I've tried the same device on a DL380 with an Adaptec USB card - similar results.

Up till now we've mainly used this combo-drive with laptops and tablets running Windows XP. Maybe it's the drive.

When talking to HP tech support about this issue I was told that there are *no* supported USB CD drives for this server. I can buy four internal CD drives, but I need to make sure I don't need to get to DVD media with these servers. Thanks HP.

[jon_135]

Had similar problems trying to find an "approved" USB CD drive for a new DL140.

None of the wholesalers have stock of the official CD-ROM, I am awaiting delivery of a USB Liteon.

I did find some info that may be of use to you:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/platforms/usb-support.html

Best

Jon

[Juan R. Martinez]

Hi David,
I just had a similar problem, but I was actually lucky. I support an latinamerican business with servers in Miami; and I came several hours ago to install some new dl140 servers, some with RH9 and one with RH7.3.
The guys who bought these servers didn't konw they cam with no cdrom, and I didn't know it either. I was running out of time so I went to a local bestbuys and found the cheapest/fastest cdrom - DINEX 52x32x52x usb 2.0 cd-rw. It might not compare to the iomega in brand, but it surely is faster (iomega was 52x24x52), plus iomega was $99 instead of $79 for the dinex. I was a little worried that it wouldn't work, specially for linux boot installations, but to my surprise when I booted the bios automatically had it as a boot component. One thing is for sure, the installation has obviously gone slower but at least it is going. I didn't have time to look on those hclist but I was lucky I found this one. (model dx-ecdrw100). I hope this helps.