Flex-10 in not-flex switch, 2008R2. NICs disconnected.

[Magnus von Rosen]

Hi!
I installed a pair of 460 G6's in a C7000 with only normal HP/Cisco 1Gb switches. This normally works well, I will get a 1 GB Link on each of the two nics.
Since this is a 2008 R2 installation and SmartStart does not support that, I installed PSP after Windows was installed. Now, the NIC's show up as "Disconnected". I think this happened after I installed PSP and teamed them with HP Team Manager.
Even though I un-team them, they still show up as disconnected.
I can't rollback the driver for the NIC, that box is greyed out.
Previous servers in these bay worked fine, so the ports are up.
I tried installing the latest NIC drivers.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Magnus von Rosen, Sweden

[JKytsi]

How about software levels on blade enclosure switches ? Were the previous servers also G6 which worked in these bays.

[Magnus von Rosen]

The previous servers that sat in these bays where not Flex-10, they were 460 G1.
I am running another G6 in the same situation in another enclosure, that is working fine.
I think this is because it is 2008 R2 (no smartstart).
I will try re-installing Windows and double check if it works before PSP installation.

The Cisco switches are 3020 running v12.2

Thanks!
/Magnus

[Magnus von Rosen]

One more detail: None of the NIC LED's on the front of the servers are lit up.
Next to these servers are a pair of 460 G6's that have 2008 R2 CORE installed. Those are working fine.
As I think about it, it seems more and more that this is a driver issue.
I am now re-installing one of the two servers that have this issue. Will let you know what happens when that is complete.

Thanks,
Magnus

[Adrian Clint]

Magnus,

Check BIOS, iLO and Power Controller firmware to see if they are the same. You can do this from the OA.
Also get the latest NIC firmware installed. It is required for VC firmware 2.30 - see the release notes.

Boot this blade firmware CD - it has the latest NIC firmware. Not sure if the windows downloads have the latest.
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd/p1255591055/v56570/bbfirmware-1.62-0.zip

If that fails, reset/restart the blades and interconnects from the OA command line.

[Magnus von Rosen]

Thank you, I am downloading now and will try right away.
Clean installation of 2008 R2 Enterprise is complete, but the NICs still show up as "not connected", even before installing PSP or anything.

Will return with results of firmware upgrade shortly.

Thanks,
Magnus

[Magnus von Rosen]

The firmware update of the NIC did nothing, sorry.
I will now install 2008 server (not R2) to see what happens.

/Magnus

[Magnus von Rosen]

I installed 2008 "R0" 64 bit. No NIC after installation, so I installed PSP. After that, I have NICs but still Disconnected.
Last desperate attempt, will now install 2008 R0 using smartstart. After that, I don't know what to try and what to look for.

Thanks,
Magnus

[Magnus von Rosen]

Update to myself:
The NICs come online if I move the server to another enclosure, even though they have the exakt same configuration.
I'm, so baffled! :)

[Magnus von Rosen]

Problem Solved.
Todays depressing thruth: It helps to yank the server out of the enclosure, and then insert it again.
Both servers now have lit LEDs in the front, and the OS finds the NICs Connected.

Thanks for the replies everyone.