how to upgrade windows 2003 standard edition to enterprise

[Corkappa]

After seeing twice the same problem with updating Windows 2003 standard edition to enterprise on Proliants DL380 and ML570 I now want to know the proper procedure...
Both servers had the newest HP drivers of that moment (Server Support Pack 7.40), the newest BIOSses and service pack 1 for Windows 2003. As upgrade source I used a Windows 2003 Enterprise cd with integrated Service Pack 1. During installation at 34 minutes the installation stopped with a blue screen for cpqasm.sys (or cpqasm2.sys, not sure) and reboots. On the DL380 the server rebooted a couple of times and then continued the installation just as Microsoft describes (if it cannot initialize a device, it will be marked and skipped during the next try). So this server became eventually operational. But the ML570 stayed in the loop, even after disabling the cpqasm2.sys service in the recovery console, so I had to reinstall the server...

And now I need to upgrade another DL380 G4 server from W2k3 std to enterprise and I don't want to end up again with blue screens. I can't find an HP manual to do this procedure, so does someone know how to proceed?

Thanks!
Cor

[Rune J. Winje · Accepted solution]

Not really sure about "proper procedure" but in general it is a good idea to simplify before upgrade.

So if doing an in-place upgrade:
-> Uninstall any HP management sw before upgrade
-> Un-team your NIC's
-> Disable/uninstall any Anti-Virus
-> Disable or uninstall any other HW monitoring agents or software
-> If using the standard Windows CD setup, make sure to select F6 during start, so you can input the correct storage driver (which you can get from the SmartStart CD).

7.40 came in 2 versions - the B version (autumn 2005) fixed some issues in the first.

cpqasm2.sys specifically seems to be the "System information" agent, so it is probably a good idea to wait until _after_ installation of the OS before installing it.

Ref also this old discussion I found from 2003:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=193259&admit=-682735245+1152684869640+28353475


Cheers,
Rune

[Corkappa]

Hi Rune,

It's been a while since you answered my request for help, but it was not for nothing! This week I upgraded the server to enterprise edition without any problems. I think mainly because of the deinstallation of the HP management software.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction,
cor

[Rmitchell_1]

Funny thing. I just upgraded a DL380 G4 the same way and before I did so, I uninstalled everything HP from the box. Instead of BSOD, it just locks up.

Any thoughts?

[Rmitchell_1]

Even though I uninstalled all the HP stuff, it seems that the old cpqasm2.sys got me. I had to go into the recovery console to delete it.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=PSD_EM050127_CW01

Above is a good document on explaining the situation.