DL360e G8 - / B320i RAID Controller cannot be configured (kernel-panic)

[SchultzIT]

Hello,

I bought an used HP DL360e Gen8 server with embedded B320i RAID controller.

When I start booting it to initially configure the B320i , I only get a number of Linux error messages (see attached image "screenshot-2") and the server freezes. Details of the B320i controller are visible in "screenshot-1" attachment.

Could anyone give me some suggestions on how to deal with this please.

Any hint would be greatly appreciated...

Kind regards

Ruediger Schultz

[SchultzIT]

Trying to upload the screenshots, the system keeps fooling me:

The file screenshot2.jpg does not have a valid extension for an attachment and has been removed. jpg; jpeg; png; gif are the valid extensions.

[SchultzIT]

Screenshot 1
https://it-solutions.schultz.ch/images/schultz.ch/it-solutions/HP-DL360e.B320i.screenshot1.jpg

Screenshot 2
https://it-solutions.schultz.ch/images/schultz.ch/it-solutions/HP-DL360e.B320i.screenshot2.jpg

[TTr]

Do you press any buttons at the first screen? F9, F10, F11? Are there any boot devices? The B320i says that "...Not Configured" and is asking you to "RUN Array Configuration Utility"

Where is the server booting from? Are there any disks devices not on the B320i?

[SchultzIT]

Thanks for the quick response!

I tried different approaches (regarding buttons) - all with the same effect (crashing):

1) Doing nothing at all

2) Pressing F5 as requested

3) Pressing F10 to enter "intelligent provisioning"

When I "disable" the B320i in the setup, the BIOS continues to startup without the "kernel-panic" (but I do not have a "boot device" configured yet, as I intend to have the first logical B320i array to be defined as BOOT device. But to do this, I have to be able to access the B320i)

There is "nothing" configured outside the B320i yet, and I dont intend to (except if I am forced to do so, to overcome this issue of course).

Thanks for your help

[TTr]

Does the F5 take you to ACU? In there you can check the current configuration.
You can also create a bootable ACU cd/dvd and boot from it. http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_b8cacaa71541492d8ee070fe99

Are you able to go in the boot menu? Is there a boot device? Which one?

When you disable the B320i, the server does not find a boot device so apparently it boots from the B320i.  

Either the B320i is in HBA mode (if it has one) or the server finds a disk header though it and boots from it.

[SchultzIT]

Pressing F5 when requestes gives the message "ACU will be started automatically", then a graphical screen with a "progress bar" appears for one second or so, starting to "load" something (cannot read what it is). The next thing is the "kernel panic" as documented in screenshot

With "F11" i can reach the "one time boot menu", and there are a number of options, however the "one time boot from harddisk" does not work (of course).

I also tried the ACU boot dvd (though I used the latest available version 9.40.12.0, instead of 9.10.22.0 which your link pointed to). This lead me to a GNU BASH commandline interface (version 3.2.51(1) ), but not the ACU itself (or am I missing something here?)

[Jimmy Vance]

What happens when you press F10 to start Intelligent Provisioning?  once IP loads you can start SSA from within IP.  ACU is an old utility that has been replaced by SSA. I don't think ACU would recognise the controller even if it loaded.

If IP won't start when you press F10 during POST, you will need to download and run the IP recovery image which is available for D/L under drivers and software for the DL360e Gen8

[SchultzIT]

F10 button IS recognized and acknowledged (highlighted), but then I receive a message "F5 selected, ACU will start automatically", leading of course to the now well know "kernel-panic"

It looks to me like "initiating the Intelligent-Provisioning invokes the ACU utility" before anything else can "prevent" this...

sorry for the "non-tech talk"...

Will try the "IP recovery image" as suggested - thanks for your assistence!

[SchultzIT]

Issue (kind of) solved!

The dealer from whom I bought this used server now (after almost three weeks of "not-responding") agreed to solve this issue by providing an alternative RAID controller P420.

So I guess we can close this topic.

Sorry for wasting your time!

Kind regards and thanks for your help

Ruediger Schultz, Schultz IT Solutions

[Jimmy Vance]

The same tools are used to configure the P420. The error you are seeing is from the tools not the controller. Until you can run  HPSSA you cannot configure RAID on the controller.

[BrownNoser]

Excuse the bump, but this is the first thread on Google that came up when I searched for "raid b320i kernal panic not syncing vfs dl360e hpe". I found the OP's posts to be a very similar situation that I found myself in.

Jimmy Vance's suggested work around at the end was correct for our team: the raid controller was fine, just the installation tools (specifically, Intelligent Provision aka "IP") was damaged in some way. 

The steps required to fix the error involve reinstalling an updated IP, and are largely found in this document: 

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03693433

Basically, go find the latest IP iso (at the time of this writing: this link is the latest), make a usb flash drive using the HPE disk utility (this link works) and boot from USB using the guides instructions. We ran into 1 error not mentioned in the document: something about NVRAM corruption. I followed this guide, answer #3. After installing everything on the USB drive, I rebooted, pressed the F button to get into IP, and was able to configure the machine flawlessly from there.

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com/]