Upgrading one Proliant Server with components from another Proliant Server

[Karl-Heinz Blenk]

Hallo,

following situation:
I have a Compaq Proliant DL380 server with one CPU (Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3 ~797 Mhz) and the built in smart array controller with a RAID 5 set of 3 hot plug hdds. Installed OS: Windows 2003 Standard Edition. This is Server "A".

I have another Compaq Proliant DL380 server with two CPUs (Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 6 ~996 Mhz) and the built in smart array controller with a RAID 5 set of 3 hot plug hdds. Installed OS: Windows 2003 Web Edition. This ist Server "B".

Server B is now out of production and I want Server A upgrade with a 2nd CPU. I don't want to copy files or reinstall the server.

What is the best way to reach this goal, what is possible?
- Remove the CPU from Server A, put the 2 CPUs from Server B to Server A
or
- Remove all HDDs from Server B, put all HDDs from Server A to Server B.

Kind regards
Karl-Heinz

[Brian_Murdoch · Accepted solution]

Hi Karl-Heinz,

First - Make sure the current system BIOS on Server A is 12/18/2002 (P17). If it isn't then download this version from the following link and update Server A before making any changes. This creates a bootable System BIOS update diskette.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17424.html

Now remove the CPU's and Processor Power Modules (PPM's) from server B. Although the PPM in server A is the same, you should keep the PPM's with their matching CPU's from the other server as you know they worked as a pair before.

Use the Proliant DL380 G1 Maintenance and Service Guide to properly remove and re-install these items. Here is a link to the MSG guide. See Chapter 2 for details.

http://h200008.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_136363-004/TPM_136363-004.pdf

Now remove the single PPM and CPU from server A and install the matching PPM's and CPU's taken from server B into Server A.

Boot the system and run the System Configuration Utility (SCU) by pressing F10 when the cursor jumps to the top right of the screen after the beep. If you don't have the F10 diagnostic partition installed you can boot from a Smartstart CD (V5.50 or below for G1 servers) Within the SCU, Choose Configure Hardware, then View and Edit Details. Make sure that the new CPU's are seen and that the correct CPU speeds and cache values are detected too before booting into the operating system.

If OK, save the configuration and exit from the SCU.

The system should boot OK but you will still only see one CPU from the operating system since you will have a Uniprocessor HAL installed so you need to install a Multiprocessor HAL. This can be done in Windows Server 2003 very easily. See the following Microsoft Windows 2000 guideline.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234558

I hope this helps,

Brian

[Brian_Murdoch]

Karl-Heinz,

I should add that the DL380 G1 is Not ACPI compliant so you will have a HAL installed which is probably stated as "MPS Uniprocessor PC". This means that to add dual processor support you will need the "MPS Multiprocessor PC" HAL.

Sorry, I should have made this clear for you earlier.

Brian

[Karl-Heinz Blenk]

Hi Brian,

thank a lot for this good how-to!
I'll try this in one or two weeks.

But before, I have two further questions:
1)
The server isn't next to me, so I currently can view the configuration remote. WINMSD will show me:
BIOS-Version/Date: P17, 04.07.2002 on the 1 CPU Server, P17, 18.12.2002 on the 2 CPU Server. This means that I must upgrade the 1 CPU Server?

2)
On the 1 CPU Server, WINMSD display HAL: 5.2.3790.0 (srv03_rtm.030324-2048), on device manager "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" with drivers "hal.dll", "ntkrnlpa.exe", "ntoskrnl.exe".
On the 2 CPU Server, WINMSD display HAL: 5.2.3790.0 (srv03_rtm.030324-2048), on device manager "ACPI Multiprocessor PC" with drivers "hal.dll", "ntkrnlpa.exe", "ntoskrnl.exe".
The both server will display the same values for driver and in WINMSD. Only the name in the device manager is different. Will Windows 2003 use automatically the correct hal, because the driver is on both server "hal.dll"?

Kind regards
Karl-Heinz

[Karl-Heinz Blenk]

Thank a lot for help!