I had problems a month or so ago with the loss of network connectivity on a W2K3 DL360 G2 server with teamed NICs, setup from the HP NW config utility with PSP 7.90. Suddenly the server just wouldn't ping anything else on the network. We eventually decided to dissolve the team and doing this completely destroyed the server. I had to rebuild it from scratch. It just Blue screened on boot and on the odd occasion I managed to boot it, it either then froze or the NIC's wouldn't let me configure an ip address.
Reluctantly, I had to dissolve the NICs on another server yesterday and this exhibited a similar problem. It just wouldn't get past the Array Configuration messages on boot. Just sat there doing nothing. Eventually managed to boot it and set an IP address on one of the NICS but again the server just couldn't see the network. Decided to reboot the server again and then it blue screened.
Is this a known problem with teaming / dissolving NIC's using PSP 7.90?
This is my first experience of teaming NICs and if this is what can happen then we certainly won't be doing it again.
Thanks for that info. I eventually managed yesterday lunchtime to get one of the NIC's on this server configured with an ip address. Think it was happier after being switched off overnight. However today we're seeing the same problem with one NIC - intermittent pings and errors on the switch. I'm downloading PSP 7.91 and will try and install it next week. Will keep this post updated.
have no experience with psp7.91 yet. But dissolving a team works best with network disconnected, as a dissolved team member reverts to requesting a dhcp-adress. => two former team members = double trouble. (server with two nics with newly accuired dhcp adress registering with dns allmost the same time).
I discovered last week that one NIC was using the correct HP driver and the other was suddenly using a Broadcom driver. I removed the Broadcom driver, rebooted the server hoping it would pick up the same HP NIC driver but it didn't. Picked up the Broadcom again. I then removed the Broadcom driver and manually installed the HP driver. Appeared in device manager with a Red Cross, but when you right click it, it suggests it is enabled as you get the option to disable it. In My Network Places however the card is disabled and when you try and enable it noting happens!
How do I fix this? I've even upgraded to PSP7.91 but still unabel to resolve.
Yes that's right, the cards are NC7780 PCI. The version of the HP card is 10.42 but I can't remember what version the Broadcom driver was. Maybe it was the same. Anyway, I've just remotely removed the faulty NIC driver and asked Device manager to search for new hardware, which it found, but on trying to select a driver automatically it's just killed my remote network link which I'm not too happy about. Will have to send someone to try and restore the link somehow then I'll probably just leave it alone until 2008 when I can get up there next as it's just too risky fiddling with unreliable HP/MS software.
By the way how do I found out the firmware version of the NIC's? Doesn't display firmware versions in HP Insight Manager Version Control Agent Screen. Just driver versions. Can't say I've ever upgraded firmware on Network Cards. Maybe my server that got destroyed just have the firmware sucked out of the network cards somehow? Our hardware support contractors swapped the motherboard out in the end as the BIOS didn't think the cards had any MAC addresses. Said they were disabled.
dont remove the driver and ask windows to find them again - remove them - reboot - and install the Broadcom drivers and the other procedure that I told you
hi Lenny, I had something of a similar problem with one of my clients DL580 G2 server running exchange 2000 which I then upgraded to windows 2003 and exchange 2003. In addition to the above said issues, I also had issues of the server rebooting every once in a while and dumping something. After days of struggle I sent a dump to HP's microsoft support and they said that we had a version on Open File Manager which was not compatible with win 2003. Someone had loaded Open file managed on the windows 2000 which I failed to notice and when I upgraded that server to windows 2003 with exchange 2003 running all hell broke loose. Incidentally we have other servers running the same version of open file manager running and they all work fine. It's only when the Exchange 2003 component comes in that they go mad. So what I am trying to tell you here is that you might just have the same issues that I had. Check and see if you have any incompatible programs on your server and take them off.
The NIC teaming software (I suspect) has just completely destroyed another DL360 G2 server. The server in question worked in an HP 2524 switch but wouldn't ping in an 2848 switch (both switches have latest frmware). As per the advice given above I upgraded the NIC firmware in both NICs from 2.4 to 2.19 (strange version numbering here) hoping the server would then respond in the 2848 switch but it wouldn't. Worked back in the 2524 switch for a while then just stopped responding, even after a couple of reboots. After a night of being down,, the server won't boot at all now, regardless of what didks are in there, and won't boot from the smartstart CD either. Just hangs after the Array Config messages have been displayed. Exactly the same symptoms as the other server it destroyed. I strongly suspect the NIC firmware has been sucked out, like the other server that failed and this is why it won't boot. On the other server I eventually managed to get into the BIOS to see the NIC's were either disabled or gave a MAC address of 00000000000000. Can't get that far on this server whatever I try though.
Very dodgy 7.90 Insight Maanagement software. Didn't even have the chance to upgrade to 7.91.
Motherboard swapped out on 2nd server and all fine now. No Broadcom card in Device Manager either, just 2 HP NC7780 NICS as I would expect, and this is using the same disks too. Maybe the NIC teaming software, or even just the NIC software in general that comes with PSP7.90 just highlighted hardware faults that we didn't know about, although I would be surprised if this was the case, but maybe it's true.
