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Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

 
LeviK
Occasional Visitor

Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

I am from a non-profit, and we purchased a HP Proliant DL180 G6 from the company that I used to work for.  I physically witnessed this machine working before powering it down, removing it from the rack, and taking it to my new place of business.  When I connected it back up to clean some of the programs off of the HD, it won't boot anymore to the Windows OS.  It has a single Xeon processor, 12 GB RAM, a RAID 5 configuration, with 3 500GB hard drives.  I noticed that when I powered it on, after the BIOS screen, the RAID comes up fine, and then it attempts to find boot media from the network.  I am almost 100% sure that the previous admin didn't set it up to do that because honestly he lacked the expertise.  I guess it is possible that it came that way, but it would normally boot to the Windows 2003 Server OS.  I entered the BIOS and set it to boot from the HD...No luck.  It says, "Press any key to search for boot media."  I put a Windows 2003 install disk in the drive and it goes to a blank screen with a flashing curser.    The RAID utility reports all drives "OK".  I am at a loss.  Is there something I am missing? 

6 REPLIES 6
Suman_1978
HPE Pro

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

Hi,

 

Either the admin at that place has deleted the data or formatted the hard drive before handing it over OR there may be some loose connections within the server.

 

Power off the server and reseat all hard drives.

Check data and power cables that connect to the backplane.

 

In RAID utility check if the partition is all empty or is there any space thats used.

 

Clear NVRAM.

 

Thank You!
I am a HP employee.


I work for HPE.
[Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and not official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise]

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LeviK
Occasional Visitor

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

Thanks for the reply!  I have checked all the cables and seated the HD's.  Like I said before, all the disks seem to check out.  No errors reported, all green lights, and the RAID software is reporting them all "OK".  As far as checking the space on them, I am not really sure how to do that.  This is what it is currently telling me:

 

Logical Drive # 1, RAID 5, 931.5 GB, Status OK

 

Assigned Physical Drives

Port 1I, Box 1, Bay 1, 500.1GB SATA HDD OK

Port 1I, Box 1, Bay 2, 500.1GB SATA HDD OK

Port 1I, Box 1, Bay 3, 500.1GB SATA HDD OK

 

Assigned Spare Drives

No Drives Present

 

I am assuming that because the total of the Logical Drive is 931 and the sum of the Physical Drives is 1500 that there is space being taken up on the drives. 

 

Please Correct me if I am wrong, and thank you for your help!!!

LeviK
Occasional Visitor

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

PS. How do I clear the NVRAM?
Suman_1978
HPE Pro

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

Hi,

 

Refer to this article on clearing NVRAM/Resetting server to default configuration.

 

By the way which utility are you using to check the Raid/hard drive configuration outside OS?

 

Thank You!
I am a HP employee.


I work for HPE.
[Any personal opinions expressed are mine, and not official statements on behalf of Hewlett Packard Enterprise]

Accept or Kudo

LeviK
Occasional Visitor

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

I am using the Raid utility that is part of the boot sequence.  I think I hit F10 but could be wrong. 

Darryl Gagne
Occasional Contributor

Re: Proliant DL180 G6 Wont boot

Did this thread ever get resolved? I had the same server (DL180 w/Win2008) that no longer booted. It was running fine, and then one morning after updates, it no longer booted. The server was not being used for much so I just reinstalled the OS. I ran the updates again, and it booted several times. I then put it on the domain and rebooted. Everything was great. I shut it down, moved it back to the server room, and booted it up. It said it couldn't find a boot device. I ran some dignostics and one of the hard drives had failed...so I got 2 new hard drives (it was a mirrored boot drive) and reinstalled. Same issue. After running it for a few days, and booting often, it just stopped booting again. I suspect controller card, but I don't want to just start replacing parts....suggestions?