System recovery via iLO

[JPS-LTU]

Hi there,

trying to use windows ASR (automated system recovery) method to recover a blade (test environment). Blade is a BL20p. iLO firmware version is 1.82

Using ASR requires access to both floppy disk and CD media, so i select "enable Virtual Media Multi-device connection" from the virtual media screen. When i select this i get a message reading "The Virtual Media Multi-Connect feature requires Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or Windows 2003 Server. Please see the help pages for further details.". I can still select both floppy and CD media .When i try to boot from the CD Media, the disk is ignored - i dont see the 'press any key to boot from cd message', and windows tries to boot from the hard drive.

When i disable the multi-device connection, (and only have the CD drive as the virtual media) and reboot i am prompted to boot from th cd if required.

so does this mean that we cannot use the ASR method on the blades??? surely we are not the only ppl to see this? is it maybe a firmware veersion problem - i have seen it done on earlier firmware versions without this problem...

any help appreciated!
jason

[acartes]

Check that your host system ROM is current. Older system ROMs may have problems with "virtual media multi-connect"

[JPS-LTU]

Hi acartes,

thanks for the reply...

other things came up as they always do, and we put this on the backburner for a while.

revisted last week, and found that the problem is actually due to the 'High Performance Mouse' being enabled.
Once we disabled this from the iLO console, the problems disappeared.

I will be logging this one with HP, as it should be mentioned in the documentation (or if it is - we didnt see any reference to it!!)

We have found other issues with the high performance mouse (such as making the mouse unusable when booting an iLO session from the SmartStart/ Firmware CD...sheesh

[acartes]

Sorry, I did not catch that angle.

Yes, on iLO, the High Performance Mouse mode uses a virtual USB mouse. This is linked with the virtual media devices, since they are all virtual USB devices.

There can be some interaction when these are all used, for instance, disconnecting virtual media should not interfere with the virtual mouse, and I believe that it has been documented somewhere.