Query: HP Proliant ML10 V2 - Cannot boot from SSD (ext/int) but can boot from USB thumbdrive

[kiilsong]

I have a HP Proliant ML10 V2 server that I've been using for months as a TrueNAS server.

I have 4 internal NAS HDDs connected to the SAS/SATA port.

For months, I had an SSD attached to the front USB port via a USB -> SATA cable that was the boot drive and contained the TrueNAS CORE server. Worked fine.

However, after I tried upgrading that TrueNAS Core server to TrueNAS SCALE, even though it looked like the server was upgraded successfully, the HP server keeps saying that SSD is not bootable. 

I tried the following successfully:

- Connected the SSD to another computer and it booted from that SSD successfully

- Booted successfully from a USB thumbdrive into a balenaEtcher created ISO of the TrueNAS ISO

These were unsuccessful after installing TrueNAS on the SSD where TrueNAS was installed:

- connected the SSD via every USB port (2 front and 2 back) on the HP server, does not recognize the drive as a bootable drive

- connected the SSD to the other SATA ports on the motherboard (there are 2 that are not part of the SAS port). I believe these are normally reserved for optical drives. They show up as ports 5 and 6.

- tried AHCI, RAID, Legacy SATA modes. No difference

- changed boot order to boot from USB first. No dice.

Any ideas on how I can get this server to boot from this SSD?

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. HPE ProLiant ML10 v2 Server - Configuring Raid Array and Installing Operating System

2. HPE Boot from SAN Configuration Guide

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[kiilsong]

Thanks for the reply, but I don't think this really applies in my situation, since the SSD is not attached to a SAN.

It's either connected internally through one of the SATA ports or through a direct USB connection.

Am I wrong?

[techin]

Does this info help:

https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/ProLiant-ML10-v2-PCIe-SSD-boot-disk/m-p/7001499#M161982

[kiilsong]

Unfortunately, it does not.

I say this because for the last 4 months or so, I was able to boot from an external SSD (connected by a cable like this: AmazonSmile: StarTech.com SATA to USB Cable - USB 3.0 to 2.5” SATA III Hard Drive Adapter - External Converter for SSD/HDD Data Transfer (USB3S2SAT3CB) : Electronics)

It's when I reformatted that drive and tried upgrading to TrueNAS Scale, a different OS, that this problem started occuring. 

[kiilsong]

So I think I've narrowed down the issue.

TrueNAS CORE, which has the following boot disk formatting options (BIOS or UEFI) is able to boot successfully.

TrueNAS SCALE and Proxmox VE - which I don't think has the same boot disk formatting options, no matter what I do, can successfully boot. The only formatting options I can see are related to the file system format: XFS, EXT4, ZFS, etc.

Maybe the way I need to approach this issue is to figure out how to get TrueNAS SCALE/Proxmox to format with the right boot disk/partition formatting ...

[BigBrainAFK]

As far as I know both TrueNAS SCALE and Proxmox VE support Legacy BIOS.
The biggest hurdle is usually to have an MBR Partition table on the boot medium as many HPE Products especially before G9 mostly only supported Legacy BIOS and thus MBR boot disks.