DL360 Gen 9 Server Boot Issues

[sterettseckman]

Stuck at Pre-Boot Summary with Flashing Green Power Button

Hi HPE Community,

I’m encountering an issue with our HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 server and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have.

Current Issue:

• The server is failing to complete its boot process and remains stuck at the Pre-Boot summary page.
• The power button is flashing green instead of showing a solid green light, indicating some sort of issue.
• After attempting a hard reboot by disconnecting power, the server continues to exhibit the same behavior.
• Although all NIC ports (except for the cross-connect fiber port) and PSUs appear to be up, the server is not providing any signal to connected monitors or keyboards, so I can't confirm if it has booted properly.

Details from Onsite Staff:

• Visually, all appears normal from the back of the server, except for a fiber port being down.
• Despite pressing and holding the power button, the server will not complete the boot or restart on its own.
• After a hard reboot, the same pre-boot status persists, and there is no signal output to peripherals like the keyboard and monitor.

Questions:

1. Flashing Green Power Button: Could this indicate a hardware fault or other issue that might prevent the server from booting? What are the potential causes of this status?

2. Firmware Update: The iLO firmware on this server is quite outdated. Could updating the firmware potentially resolve these boot issues? If so, what’s the safest way to perform this update given the current state of the server?

3. Next Steps: Given the symptoms, what would be the next best steps for troubleshooting this issue? Should I consider any specific diagnostics or hardware checks before attempting further actions?

Additional Information:

• The incident started with the server powering down, iLO event log  showing "Embedded Flash/SD-Card: Restarted" and then "Server power removed". I have confirmed with onsite staff that no power outage occurred, and the iLO is still operational so power is going to the machine.
• iLO diagnostics shows green status for Embedded Flash/SD-Card 

Any advice, insights, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m particularly interested in understanding what might be causing the flashing green power button and how best to proceed to get the server back online.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[rabindra11sharm · Accepted solution]

Dear  sterettseckman

This seems a PCI bus lockup. Common to see it reboot and then just hang blinking green.
Two relevant firmwares are the SmartArray Controller p440ar and the power management controller.
For the SmartArray, 2.12, 4.52 are both known problematic revisions. Need to be on 6.60 or later for the p440ar. Also It is advised to upgrade full server firmware through latest SPP as you earlier mentioned that server firmware is low.

SPP Link befor Post production: https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/softwaredetails?softwareId=MTX_cb5dfa5ffca04d408d99879d27&tab=releaseNotes

Latest SPP after Post production:  https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/softwaredetails?collectionId=MTX-f321ced87ef343b8&tab=releaseNotes

System may or may not log 0x13 lockup codes.
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_e72e09a823154db2bd8dc779aa 33

Next check your Power Management Controller firmware, and update to latest.
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX-dd821dd7504540a78e4228ce17#tab1 51

If it happens again, remove power, unseat the p440ar, remove the riser near it(riser 2, closest to PSUs), and boot the system with both removed. Once its posted, shutdown and add them both back in, patch p440ar first, then PMC. Common issue for these G9s on old code.

If it happen again, check with minimum configuration. Only 1 PROC with 1 DIMM, no any hardware on PCI slot. is there any other reason for this issue.

Hope, I could provide you with clear and helpful instructions. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help! Have a great day!

[Cali]

Removing everything until the server boots again is a good idea from Rabindra. Then you've at least found the cause.
In my experience, updating the firmware doesn't help anymore, but you can try.

>> Visually, all appears normal from the back of the server, except for a fiber port being down.
And that's OK, because the FC ports only come up when the driver is loaded.

Cali

[sterettseckman]

Thank you so much for the info, will try these and come back you 

[support_s]

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