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Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

 
robin24
Occasional Contributor

ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

Hello all,

I recently purchased an HP ProLiant Micro Server Gen8. I installed an 8GB MicroSD card in there to be used as a rescue system, and the MicroSD card is a genuine HP-branded one.

Now when I setup the rescue system, I could install to the card just fine, and the Debian installer would also show the card as being an 8GB capacity disk. Today, I wanted to boot into the rescue system, and found that it wouldn't start up. I then restarted back to the actual server OS (also Debian but installed on the hard disks). I then attempted to mount the SD card, but without any luck. I fired up parted to inspect the partition table, and was pretty shocked when it found no partitions on the device whatsoever. Also, I called up all the information about that volume, and was even more shocked when parted was showing a total volume capacity of only around 33MB… Since there wasn’t anything important on that MicroSD card, I tried erasing the partition table and reformatting the whole card, but without any luck - the total capacity remains at around 33MB. I personally have no clue what happened there, but it’s definitely very annoying. I’ve tried power-cycling the server, and double-checked that I was working with the correct device. Please, could anyone shed some light on this problem and suggest any fixes?

Thanks a lot!!!

Robin

6 REPLIES 6
Jimmy Vance
HPE Pro

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

Not sure what to suggest on the capacity issue. I can say that I've installed and ran the OS from various MicroSD cards on this server. I've used cards from 2GB through 32GB in size. Can't recall if I used anything any larger. I was using the MicroSD as the boot device. OS's I've used were Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu.

 

Because the device shows up as a "/dev/sdX" device, and the device name can and will move around depending on what other hard disks or removable media you attach. It is easy to overwrite the device by mistake (don't ask me how I know).

 

 

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robin24
Occasional Contributor

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

Hi Jimmy,

many thanks for your reply! Yes, I did ensure I was working with the correct device... I used parted on Linux to print the model name, which was shown as something like 'ILO Internal SD card'. However, I removed the card from the server, inserted it into another card reader and double-checked the capacity... It was still at around 33MB, and thus I guess the card is damaged. I'm now in touch with my distributor to get an RMA, guess there isn't much more to do :-)

Thanks!

Robin

stef70
Occasional Contributor

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

have a look at my post

 

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/WARNING-Microserver-g8-micro-SD-card-and-incorrect-capacity/td-p/6337343

 

I face this very very same problem with the new BIOS, while not with the older one.

The same SD Card plugged into the USB port nearby the SD card slot work fine.

 

I suppose it is a BIOS or iLO firmware issue.

 

Constantin07
New Member

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

Hi,

 

I installed VMware ESXi 6.0 on microSD 32GB card (class 10 UHS-1) SanDisk. All went fine. Rebooted and verified the OS loaded OK on the host.

Next day it didn't boot at all. When I tried to mount the same virtual installation iso with custom image to re-install again the hypervisor, the microSD card wasn't detected at all ... i.e. not visible.

 

Has anybody faced a similar issue?

 

Regards,

Constantin

 

ArnisR
Advisor

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk


@Constantin07 wrote:

Hi,

 

I installed VMware ESXi 6.0 on microSD 32GB card (class 10 UHS-1) SanDisk. All went fine. Rebooted and verified the OS loaded OK on the host.

Next day it didn't boot at all. When I tried to mount the same virtual installation iso with custom image to re-install again the hypervisor, the microSD card wasn't detected at all ... i.e. not visible.

 

Has anybody faced a similar issue?

 

Regards,

Constantin

 


Try to remove power cord from server for ~10 sec. After ILO upgrade numerous users have faced problems with booting from SD.

A

Socra
New Member

Re: ProLiant Micro Server Gen8: MicroSD capacity mysteriously shrunk

Yes,
I have the same issue. Can't install ESXi on a MicroSD card. Installer doesn't show the microsd at all. A 16 GB kingston USB drive plugged in on the motherboard works but the MicroSD card...not so much.
Have had the server disconnected from power tonight because I was building an SSD into the ODD bay so I don't think removing the power will help.

Installed the latest SPP yesterday.