G6 DDR3 Memory Configuration Tool

[CraigW_1]

Has anyone else found that the DDR3 Memory Configuration Tool (http://www.hp.com/go/ddr3memory-configurator) produces incorrect results? Specifically it tells you which slots to populate with which DIMMs but if you follow what it says the server won't boot, beeps, and the error lights next to the DIMMs turn amber.

According to the quickspecs for say an HP ML350 G6 you should populate slots 3A, 6B, and 9C first. And looking at a new G6 straight from the factory that is how it was configured.

Using the tool it says to populate slots 1G, 4H, and 7I. I tried that and the server doesn't boot.

If you take a configuration that the tool generates and swap 1G with 3A, 4H with 6B, and 7I with 9C, then you get a working configuration.

I hope someone from HP reads this and looks into this problem. I have an open support call where they have yet to find a working configuration for the mix of memory we were sold.

[triangle687]

Yes, I tried this tool few days ago with very strange result.
About DD3 in for example DL380 G6 server - install memory modules is sequence A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I, ignore numbering.

[CraigW_1]

I have investigated this further and found more conflicting information.

The quickspecs for the G6 servers have a table which describes the DIMM layout.
It says channel 1 is slots 1G, 2D, and 3A. The same table is included in the DDR3 Configuration Recommendations for HP ProLiant G6 Servers (see the attached picture). However the whitepaper goes on to say "DIMM slots in ProLiant G6 servers supporting DDR-3 memory are color coded to ease population. DIMM slots that are colored white represent channel 1, and should be populated first."

The white slots in a ML350 G6 are slots 3A, 6B, and 9C, so surely that means those three slots are channel 1.

I hope HP clears this up soon!

[ktklein]

I'm finding the same issue. I just selected an ML350 G6 Smart Buy (comes w/1P and 4GB (2x2GB) and I want to make it 2P and 20GB total. I would assume it would populate a 2GB and (2) 4GB modules in the A-B-C slots for each processor's bank of RAM slots but instead it puts all 6 modules in Proc1's slots in no order that I find intelligible based on what I have read. Sheesh!

[Ashish J]

Hai ,

I am also facing teh same issue in DL 380 g6 server , 2*4 gb memory module is populate , but geting beep sound ..pls find the snap shot which i populate the module ..

Rds
Ashish J

[Ashish J]

Hi ,

Issue is resolved by populating 3,6,9 and 2 Slot ..

Rds

Ashish J

[pdoSven]

Please don't use this tool!!! This is the worst that HP could have done!! I almost fried the motherboard on the server using the tool. They should fix this..

[Daniel Bowers]

CraigW (and everyone else on this thread) -- thanks for posting these issues. The glitches you've spotted in the DDR3 Configuration Tool have been fixed.

Some updates done in June to the tool messed up part of the "rules engine", and some of the results shown were ignoring the important "populate alphabetically" rule that triangle687 mentions. Craig is right, it should be been 3A+6B+9C on that ML350.

We also updated the whitepaper that CraigW mentions, and fixed that point about white slots. The current doc (http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c01750914.pdf) now says:
>>DIMM slots that are colored white represent the first slot in each channel, and therefore should be populated first.

Sorry for the problems, but keep posting your experiences/recommendations.

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

[MikhailK]

Hello,

There still seems to be problems with the tool. Please see attached. It seems to populate in correct order for proc 1 (a,b,c d) but for proc 2 the 4 Dimms are in A, D, E and F. Shouldn't proc 2 populate the same as proc 1?

[Cray]

A similar tool from Intel(r)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17625

[ktklein]

It looks like this tool is still experiencing issues. I selected a SmartBuy High Performance model (2P), put in the p/n and although that came up correctly, it tells me the memory is incorrect. How can it be incorrect if I haven't modified anything yet and that is the base memory hp is shipping preinstalled into the server??? This is frustrating. Part# in question is 530779-005 which includes 8GB RAM - I believe it is 2x2GB (3A & 6B) for Proc1 and 2x2GB (3A & 6B) for Proc2 - I think. Although not recommended but yet allowed, I'd like to add a single 4GB module into 9C on Channel 3 for both Proc1 and Proc2 giving me 16GB total. I wish the configurator would allow for this... Sigh.

[MPL]

This tool /used/ to work pretty well, then HP deemed it necessary to give it an overhaul, and now it's basically crippled.

If I tell it I have a server part number, it never seems to be able to find it, and the results it gives are now completely nonsensical.