Proliant DL580, Smart Array 3200 and new hard drives

[steviep]

Ok here is my problem.

I have a DL580 with 4 x PIII 700 processors, 2GB of RAM and we've just purchased 3 x 72GB drives for it and I am building it from scratch.

The drives are Ultra320 SCSI. The array controller is a SMART 3200 at firmware revision 4.50. The ROM is the latest ROM available for the server.

The drives are recognised with no problem using SmartStart and I can create an array. Then, no matter what I do with a OS installation it always hangs when running Windows Setup.

I've tried installed Windows Server 2003 and it copies all the files to the drive, reboots, runs windows setup and just hangs. The activity lights on the drives go solid green and the keyboard is unresponsive. I left it one night and it was still at the same screen 12 hours later.

I've tried various different ways of doing the install, even tried installing NT using Assisted build in SmartStart, tried manual build but on every occasion it is hanging on the windows setup screen.

My best guess is that there is a problem with the newer drives and the 3200 array controller but I can't find anything that says that I should not be able to use them together.

Sorry for the long post but I'd be grateful for any help with this cos I'm stumped.

Cheers for reading.

[Tarek Kawach]

Hi Stevie:

First thing I would do is make sure that you are using HP certified RAM for that server and I would reduce it to One bank of 4 matching dimms. (go below 1 gig if possible)

Make Sure NO EXTRA OR 3rd Party PCI cards are installed in the server Period.

Only have the Array controller and nothing else. you can even do without nic card (Compaq NC3134 can still be installed if you wish)

If you have removed the memory and pci cards go to F10 and run the SCU to update the changes or removing of the pci boards.

Run the setup again.

When windows is running setup it is generally using memory locations ; could be hard drive space or cpu cache or even physical memory.

Check to make sure that the scsi cable going to the SA3200 is okay on both sides ; no bent pins; and can remove the SA3200 and make sure that modules are secure (daughter board, battery cache module) use you two hands to press the modules in believe it or not this worked for me once.


Hope this helps

Best regards,

Tarek.

[steviep]

Cheers Tarek,

I'll give that a bash. Problem is that since posting I have removed the 3 x 72GB ultra320 drives and put back in the 4 x 18.2GB drives (think they are either Ultra2 or Ultra3) and the server build went fine.

So it looks like the drives are the issue.

Can anyone give me a definitive answer on whether I can use Ultra320 drives with a DL580 (not a G2) with a Smart Array 3200 controller at firmware level 4.50? At least if I know for sure I can return them for Ultra2 or Ultra 3 drives.

Thanks again.

[e4services]

Steve,
Definitively you should not have any conflicts because the drives are U320, but if they are Compaq/HP branded drives, it could be that they have messed up the Firmware somehow. A standard U320 will have no trouble communicating over a U80 line and controller, all being backward compatible. But it is an interesting phenomenon none the less and would love to explore it.

It appears you are using the SmartStart to install the 2003. Did you ever attempt it manually? My guess it is a driver issue and you have a more acceptable driver on the 18GB's already, that is not being written from the SmartStart you have. Manually you could install the latest and greatest. Don't know but it is a solution.

For now you could just replaces all the 18's with 73's and at lest get them in there.

[Scott_59]

You may have doen this but I'll say it anyway. When you being loading Windows, press F6 when prompted to install third party scsi drivers - for your smart 3200 controller.

Scott