ML110 Server won't boot with external sata HD connected

[J. Steve]

I'm struggling to find the answer here. The damn server wants to boot from the external drives. I had the same issue with usb drives. So of course I cant reboot it remotely until this issue is solved.

In the bios, these external drives are not listed in the 'removeable devices' section. They are under the hard drive section and there's NO option to disable. Only option is to re-order them. Which works for a little while and then reverts.

How hard is it for HP to solve this issue, I NEVER NEVER NEVER want it to boot from a drive!!!!!!!!

If I disable USB wont that stop my keyboard/mouse from working?

PLEASE HELP ME!

[KarloChacon]

hi

ML110 which Generation 1, 2 , 3, ..?

there are 5 generation for these server.

Regards

[J. Steve]

I think it is the G4 of this model, might be the G5 though.

In the past, I had the same issue on a G3 but that was with USB drive.

[KarloChacon]

hi

well in case that is a ML110 G4 update System ROM make changes in boot order and test

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3186395&swItem=MTX-60e5ce8c884f461cb9cd34e3b2&prodNameId=3279681&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=0

regards

[J. Steve]

I updated the bios as instructed. Now my server shuts down without warning, about 5 minutes after booting up.

[KarloChacon]

hi

- try clear CMOS

- also:

# Press the F10 key during POST to enter the System BIOS setup menu.
# Select "Advanced."
# Select "IPMI."
# Select "BIOS POST Watchdog Enable (Change to) Disabled."
# Select "Exit/Save BIOS configuration changes."
# Reboot the server to allow the changes to take effect.

regards

[RaMpaNTe]

Hi, there is no BIOS update that can "fix" this issue. In fact and the hardest thing of all is: There is no fix for this.

Yes you've read fine. As long as you have External USB drives connected to your server every time you reboot it the server will try to boot from the USB drives. This happens with a large qty of ProLiant servers and not only with the ML110 Gx.

I know this is not the answer or the "fix" you were looking for but unfortunately there is not much we can do at this point. And yes disabling USB from the BIOS will turn your USB Mouse and Keyboard unusable.

By the way, no hardware replacement will fix the issue either.

[clueless_2]

I have an ML110 G5 and have this very problem with the latest firmware.

Is this still the case with these servers?

[Juan-Emil]

I am experiencing the same problem with my ML110 G2

When the server reboots with the external plugged in it will try boot up from the external.

Has anybody got found a solution yet?

[Víctor Cespón]

Do you people realize that USB HDDs are unsupported on Proliant servers?

Boot from USB is designed to boot with a USB floppy, drive key or USB CD-ROM to flash a new BIOS or restore server image on some cases.
It's not designed to have a disk permanently connected there.

[Juan-Emil]

How are you the suppose to back up you date to an external removable drive?

[Juan-Emil]

Is there not a way to place a bat file on the external hard drive that when the server tries to boot from it, the bat file points back to the onboard hard drive.

[DKCNZ]

Has anyone got the answer for this yet?
I know it's not designed to have a USB HDD connected permanently. Ideally a tape drive is what you want to install but some client don't won't to fork out for a tape backup so the next best thing is a external HDD.

[Jeremy Dobe]

We were trying to get an external SATA drive(s) to work and were getting the 'No Operating System Found' error. A little history of how we got to the fix:

We had first started with Cavalry esata drives with the internal to external brackets that came with the hard drive(s). The drives were not seen by the BIOS. Called HP tech support and they said only HP branded products were supported. They said that Western Digital and Seagate products might work but no guarantees.

We ordered a HighPoint 2642 RAID controller with ESATA ports and plugged the Cavalry drives into that. Got the 'No Operating System Found'. Tried different configs, cables and chanting around an open flame while holding a chicken with the same result. Poking around in the BIOS we saw that you can expand the hard drive selection in the BIOS under boot order.

Here is the fix: Go into BIOS, Boot section, set your boot order to the following:

1. CDROM/DVDROM
2. USB
3. +Hard Drives

Expand your hard drives by highlighting and pressing enter. Your drives will be listed and move the desired bootable drive to the top of the list.

In our case we have an E200 controller for our internal drives and the HighPoint for the external drives. Moved the E200 to the top of the list and Voila!!!

Fast forward a few weeks later and setting up another server and same config, ML110 G5, E200, SAS drives, external sata this time in Fantom 1TB running on a Highpoint 622. Same error, 'No Operating System Found'. Having forgotten the fix and not documenting it we had to poke around and beat the brain bush a bit till we found it again in the hard boot order section of the BIOS again. Moved the E200 to the top again and problem fixed.

So we were able to get non-supported 3rd party hardware to work with the restrictive ML 100 series platform for all of the drives and controllers we needed to using this method. Simple solution that took a while to find and seconds to implement. Cheers

[Jeremy Dobe]

Dont forget your BIOS updates. The latest for the ML110 G5 is dated 10/09/09 as of today 12/14/09. We have not had the revert problem so chances are you ahve already fixed this issue within regular maintenance of your servers and updating their BIOS periodically. Careful when you update the BIOS for ML110 G5 as it causes a fan problem and you have to run another fix, but that is a story for another day...cheers

[johnsondata]

Thanks Jeremy
You showed me the clue for an ML110G5
1. Upgrade the bios
2. expand the hard drives in boot order as you suggested. The external usb hard drive now shows up in the list (it didn't before the bios upgrade)
3. move the external usb hard drive to the bottom of the list (disabling the external usb hard drive did not stop it from trying to boot from it.)
4. the ML110G5 now boots from the third party internal SATA Western Digital 1Tb drive like I want it too.