Proliant ML 350 G4 test project

[Baalinor]

Hello,

I am a student in an NSA program and was able to get my hands on this server that is blank. About 2 years ago it was suposed to be active, but the company that had it wiped it when they were bought out. I do not have any disks but I do have an ISO of Windoes Server 2008 on a USB drive but cannot figure out how to get the server to rercognizee the drive. I am only in my second quarter so we have not really done any instalations yet, in fact this is the first quarter I am actually doing labs involving computer work.

Anyhow, What I really wnat to know is what am I doing wrong to not be able to install this OS, I have built allof my own PCs over the years and even the one I am on now is of my own design and making. I tried to hook it up to my network at home and it seems to try and contact the DNS but to no avail. It seems taht since ther eis no OS there is no driver for the USB ports so it cannot recognize this. I have the USB driver the ISO on  pluged into my computer and connected to the network, but the server does not seem to get tot he point where I can point it to the OS to install it.

The boot choices are hard drive, CD drive and NIC, ther eis a HBA installed with 6 Hard Drives attached yet I cannot get the OS to boot up.

Please help me understand where I am going wrong (short of using an outdated piece of hardware.).

Thank you

Baalinor

[Baalinor]

Okl I did some more work on the server and confirmed that it is actually a G4 Server which may help in that it is not so old, but still outdated.

Again, any suggestions and advice is greatly welcomed.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hey, 

if the boot options don't include USB - then check out the BIOS of the server. Perhaps it needs to be enabled there. If not, then perhaps you need to install OS from a CD.. Or you could attempt to install it via PXE but that's perhaps a bit too advanced.

You'll need the driver for storage controller. to install to the hard drives. Google for "ML350 g4 drivers" and you'll end up at for example this link for 2008 x64 downloads.

For installing from CD there is the "HP SmartStart CD". In fact there is also the "HP Firmware Maintenance CD" that is probably a good idea to run, update BIOS and such. They've both been replaced with "HP SPP" these days but that's a DVD so won't work.

[Baalinor]

Thank you for the links, but right now I am getting a HBA low battery message. Having never built an actual server before, is the battery on the actual HBA board, or is it talking about the Bios battery? (might be an obvious question, but I have to ask to be sure) Anyway, if it is on the board, I take it that it is an easy fix, and probably should get the one for the bios since it has been sitting for a while.

Thanks again for the links and advice, but I cannot load any drivers untill I can get the  HBA active again.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Please take a picture of the error and upload it somewhere, I recommend http://imgur.com/

HBA is probably the SCSI HBA - this sits between the motherboard and the SCSI devices.

It's possible to have more than one controller/HBA, it is possible that your devices/disks are not connected to this SCSI HBA and that it is unused.

For diagnosing these server it's a good start to boot on the smartstart CD. It's also a good idea to upgrade firmware with the CD previously mentioned, this might be something that's fixed in a firmware update.

[Baalinor]

Thank you Johan, that is a l ot for me to digest, I will work on those things and then post my results later.  With school it may be a week or two before I get any results.

[Suman_1978]

Hi,

First check if the server actually supports USB Boot?

Second check if the server supports Windows 2008 OS?

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/windows.aspx

I have attached some images from ML350 G5, I could not find for G4 server.

F9 for bios setup during POST and see under Standard Boot Order (IPL) and System Options.

Legacy USB Disabled must NOT be chosen in RBSU (BIOS), instead choose USB Enabled.
When Legacy USB Disabled is selected, all USB ports are enabled under a USB-aware OS, but USB is not supported during POST or RBSU. Legacy USB Disabled also disables iLO 2 virtual devices.

USB Boot Support controls whether the system boots from USB devices connected to the server.
When disabled, this option also disables booting of iLO virtual media.
Options include:
• Enabled (default)
• Disabled


Booting from USB device:
Try with front and rear USB ports in the server.
Booting into a External USB hard drive may not be supported.
Avoid using USB hub while tring to boot.
Make sure USB key has bootable files.

Good Luck

Thank You!
I am a HP employee
__________________________________________
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[Baalinor]

Well HP Pro, I have been to all of the settings pages, including the ones you showed, thanks for the imnages. It is late, not sure what is going on, I cannot even get it to start to boot anything, I get a PXE-E61 Media test failure: heck cable. LOL also the batteries I bought did not help withthe low battery error, but maybe they jsut need to charge, not sure about that.

Just a bit of history,  these servers were discarded  by the company I work for, which they go tthem from a company that went bankrupt and we bought the office equipment. All the servers and computers were wiped, is that a possibility of a setting on the motherboard I need ot check?

 Also, I checked the link you provided, and acording to it, I cannot even find anything below a Gen 8, but I may need to look at it when i am not so tired, long day at work then math class, my brain hurts( Alg 2 and Trig)

Anyhow, one of the servers has 2 HBAs, with one hooked to 4 HD, and one hooked to two. I was thinking that maybe the  one hooked tot he 2 was for the OS the rest for storage.  Also, on that particular server, it does have a logical drive on it, can I install an OS on a logical drive or is taht jsut for storage? Should I delete the   logical drive, I have found the screen during post where I could.

So if anyone has a sugestion, I jsut want to get an OS installed on it. I even have an old copy of Vista, LOL I even tried making the  CD drive first in the boot order and put that in, no luck.  I jsut cannot get this to even start to allow me to install an OS, If I coudl get it to tell me that it cannot recognize the software, I can fix that, but I get no boot options at all.

Thaks for the help, hope we can get this thing working.

[waaronb]

I'm fairly sure the G4 models could boot off of a USB drive... I seem to remember doing that when I worked on them back circa 2007/2008.

And I also seem to remember being able to directly install Windows Server 2008 onto them without using the Smartstart CD... I think Server 2008 had drivers built in for the Smart Array 6i that typically came with G4 servers.  I dealt specifically with the DL models, not ML, but they probably hat the 6i built in... ?

A server like that probably does need new Smart Array batteries which I think you said you replaced.  The button battery on the motherboard is probably dead too... you'll know because if you remove power from the server for a day or so, it will lose it's time/date and all of the settings will be default.  G5 servers us a common 2032 button battery, not sure about the G4s.

You can find the Smartstart and Firmware CD's from the HP ftp site.  I actually still have some shortcuts to them:

Smartstart: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd/p1760479716/v71252/smartstart-8.70B-0-x64.zip

Firmware: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd/p1040529012/v71197/firmware-10.10-0.zip

I think those were the latest... Smartstart/Firmware CD's were replaced with the SPP DVD's a few years ago.

[Baalinor]

Thanks, downloading now.

I looked last night and when I went to the HP sote it did not list 2008 as an OS Option, though it could have been an old site.  My professs at school seems to thik there may be a BIOS password or a setrup Password, I am going to try and clear it tonight.

Though I did replace the batteries, I still get a low battery error, but I did not replace t he MB battery, I will get on tomorrow.

Thanks for the help, and ideas or sugestions, please post.