Linux on HP proliant 360 Gen9 does not boot

[Karolis_S]

Hello,

I need to install Centos 7.0/6.5 on HP proliant 360 Gen9 with HP Smart Array P440ar/2G in HBA mode (UEFI boot mode). I need HBA mode because this server is part of Apache Kafka cluster.

All servers drives are connected to HP Smart Array P440ar/2G HBA mode.  During installation i need to pass newest Smart Array drivers in order to detect all drives attached. Without newest driver OS install detects only one drive. This drive is in drive bay 8.

The problem is: I can install OS but after installation system reboots and does not boot. OS can boot only if I install it on drive which is in drive bay 8.

How can I resolve this issue?

Is there any setting on HP Smart Array P440ar/2G HBA mode which defines boot options?

[Torsten.]

Is the array controller in RAID or HBA mode?

[Karolis_S]

HBA mode.

[Torsten.]

This was yours, right?

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/HP-Smart-Array-P440ar-in-HBA-mode/m-p/6704631#M146802

[Karolis_S]

Yes.

[Torsten.]

Did you solve this?

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/HP-Proliant-DL-360-Gen9-do-not-detect-all-HDDs-installed/m-p/6706881#.VONJcy4nTHU

It is hard to follow ...

I know you can set a boot drive (logical drive) in SSA in legacy BIOS mode, maybe it is the same in HBA mode, I don't know. Please try!

Do you run UEFI or legacy BIOS mode?

See also

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=7252820&docId=emr_na-c04565702&docLocale=en_US

[Karolis_S]

I have resolved issue with missing cable.

in SSA in HBA mode there is no boot settings.

While server is booting I press F11. Then boot option list shows all hard drives connected to server. But OS boots only then it is installed on drive in drive bay 8.

[Karolis_S]

Server is in UEFI mode. I use driver http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=7252838&swItemId=MTX_cb09b3b07256440ead1b61fa0c&swEnvOid=4176

so driver is up to date.

[Jimmy Vance]

---

@Karolis_S wrote:

Hello,

I need HBA mode because this server is part of Apache Kafka cluster.

---

I don't know much about this Apache cluster, but a quick read through some of the docs says RAID is OK. You might get better perfomance if you make a RAID 0 array. With the RAID engine disabled in HBA mode you can't take advantage of the onboard cache module

[Karolis_S]

The primary downside of RAID is that it is usually a big performance hit for write throughput comparing to HBA JBOD.

Also for technologies like Hadoop or Aerospike HBA JBOD is mandatory.

[Torsten.]

Did you try to go into UEFI shell, list "map -r" and start the OS from there?

[Karolis_S]

I was able to resolve the issue. It's the problem with driver support and centos installer. Default installation does not work well, you need to do a lot of customization.

The steps I did:

1. prepare UEFI PXE deployment server
2. use ELILO: EFI Linux Boot Loader. I have tryed 4 diferent boot loaders and only this one worked.
3. inject newiest HP Smart Array P440ar drivers to initrd.img file (RAM disk)

[Jimmy Vance]

For item 2, did you have issues with just UEFI PXE, or was this using the bootloader on the server itself?