help with Proliant 2500

[David Cruickshank]

How can I get a Smart Start CD/ Floppy set for a Proliant 2500? My church had this machine donated to it, and some one put NT Workstation on it, across the drive array. I can't get the machine to boot from CD, and I'm kind of stuck, as the machine has been configured with 1 logical drive. I have tried reformatting one of the drives and instlling another OS with a second machine. I have tried booting the machine with none of the drives in. Nothing is working; I keep getting a "press F1 to continue, F10 for drive array configuration"; neither of which do anything. Any help would be appreciated.

[Derek Parmenter]

David,

It depends on what RAID controller you have as to whether or not you can configure it without SMARTSTART. The newer controllers have the configuration utility on a ROM (ORCA) but this is usually accessed by pressing F8. F10 will normally only take you to System Configuration on a 2500. I doubt you will be able to configure the RAID from there, only early SMART 2 controllers with early bios revs can be configured from System Configuration.

To get your machine to boot from CD, if you press F10 and go into System configuration, you need to ensure that the SMART controller is configured as the first controller in the boot order and the IDE / CD Rom is configured as the second controller. Otherwise you can download the System Configuation utility from the HP Support site and run it from floppy to configure the boot order from the utility that way, link below.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/13227.html

If you want to go down the Smartstart route you need version 5.50 or earlier. Version 6 and above will not work with a ProLiant of that age. This will load all the relevant HP drivers on install of your OS, then they can be updated from the versions on the HP support site, download the relevant supportpaq for the OS you have installed. Alternatively if you are happy with the RAID config you have and you can get the operating system CD to boot, you can potentially replace the operating system. However, one note, do not remove the 38MB partition (first) this will have the system config application loaded in it (if it is there).

Hope this is useful

Derek

[Brian_Murdoch]

David,

The Prolaint 2500 is an end-of-life product now but it probably has a Smart 2P or 2DH controller in it. (You should see this reported at POST)

It doesn't say where you are based but if you are in the UK, please get in touch and I can probably forward some old Smartstart CD's to get you up and running.

e-mail me at brian.murdoch@hp.com

Regards,

Brian