BL460c-g6 with Server 2003 /3GB boot.ini switch

[peccott1]

I have a BL460 G6 running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise with Exchange Server 2003.

When I set the /3GB and /USERVA=3030 switches on the boot.ini (as per microsoft recommendations for exchange 2003) the server fails to boot - it either bluescreens at startup or ASR's.

I have followed the advise in the following advisory but this has not resolved the problem.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=3884098&prodTypeId=3709945&objectID=c01151569


Does anyone have any experience of such problems and suggested solutions?

(I am using PSP 8.50)

Many thanks.

[Corvette]

I have exactly the same problem three BL460C G6. I called HP support, Not much help there. Did you find any solution, maybe Exchange 2003 runs fine without the switch?

[peccott1]

Hi, the problem was basically down to limitations of the 32 bit OS.

Having logged a support call with MS the conclusion was that there were not enough free page table entries (PTEs) and non-paged memory pool resource to accommodate the number of device drivers we were using alongside the 32bit Server 2003 OS. Our requirement was for 5 x Network connections (4 flex10, 1 virtual) and 2 x HBA's which, with all the device drivers loaded did not leave enough non-paged memory or free PTEs to give a stable environment.

Our end resolution was a move to Exchange 2007 running on 64bit Server 2008.

(In order to configure the server with enough resource to accommodate Exchange 2003 we would have needed to run the server with a single CPU, reduced RAM, single NICs and a single HBA!)

End conclusion - forgot trying to reverse engineer new hardware to accommodate old software and invest in software upgrades as well as hardware.

Hope this helps.

[Corvette]

Hello
The customer site that i will replace the hardware at are going to run Exchange 2003 until year 2014. If this is the answer, better they run on the old hardware until it fails. I made a case with HP yesterday interesting to hear the answer.