ML350 G9 UEFI Won't boot to 2012R2 CD or USB

[MichaelGroh]

I tried to follow the instructions for creating a bootable UEFI USB flash drive in that document and had trouble. The instructions say to copy the windows files to the USB stick. But the stick is formatted (as instructed) FAT 32. There's a 6GB file in the windows setup stuff that can't be copied to the USB drive.

Seems like this should be easier. Why doesn't HP just distribute bootable USB drives as media? Who actually has a CD drive in their server anymore. I don't even think you could add one to the DL380 G9s.

[emgriff]

Not sure if anyone is still struggling with this one but this is how i managed to get round the issue on two ML350 G9. 

I was trying to boot from USB in UEFI to install 2012 r2 essentials (not supported in intelligent provision apparently) it would not recognise the USB device as bootable. Loaded into legacy bios and booted fine. booted fine on other hardware. 

I noticed that the USB was formatted with NTFS after using Rufus to create. After some google help ifound that the USB drive needed to be formatted with FAT32.

The following solved my problem - 

Open an elevated command prompt, then start the diskpart utility:
diskpart.exe
List all the disks and identify your USB stick:
list disk
Select the disk number that is your USB stick, e.g.,:
select disk 4
Remove all existing partitions:
clean
Create a new partition, make it active and format as FAT32, then assign a drive letter:
create partition primary
    select partition 1
    active
    format quick fs=fat32
    assign
Exit diskpart:
exit

I then mounted an ISO containing the OS files and copied accross to the newly formatted USB. 

Then it booted. Hope this helps someone. 

[MattColburn]

I had the same issue with my new DL380 Gen 9 when trying to install Server 2012 Standard R2.

Tried my normal installation methods that work on every other server: creating a bootable USB drive with rufus. Intelligent Provisioning never found it. Tried skipping IP and booting directly to the USB. No luck.

Updated USB Firmware, tried legacy BIOS boot, no luck. Made a FAT32 USB disk, couldn't copy the 2012 R2 files to it. Made an exFAT32 USB disk, got the files copied, but Intelligent Provisioning couldn't find it, and neither UEFI nor legacy BIOS would boot to it.  Tried to use HPE's USB KEY Utility for Windows to create a bootable USB, it said that my .iso could not be used to create bootable USB media.

I finally got "Intelligent" Provisioning to recognize a network share on my FreeNAS box. Plugged in my IP address, domain info, and credentials, and wonder of wonders, my .iso appeared. It didn't install as quickly as it would have using a USB drive, but after five hours of not installing at all, I didn't care.

HPE, can we please get a version of Intelligent Provisioning that supports NTFS? Intelligent Provisioning has so many features that do work well, why is it that this is so much trouble?

[GGardiner]

Tried this and it didn't work as one of the setup files is bigger than the size allowed by FAT32.  SO there is no way to use a FAT32 formatted disk. The .iso is too big and one of the individual files is to big.  I also couldn't get the USB drive to work. used multiple tools including the recommended one and Rufus

[GGardiner]

So i spent several hours online with tech support with this issue.  While it sounds like a cop out,  iLo is the way to go.  So if you set up iLO the machine gets an initial IP.  You can then log into that IP from your machine, attach the .iso as a virtual disk and boot from there. In comparison to the hassles of creating the USB it was mcuh faster and simpler.  I didn't have to create the USB.  I had already downloaded the .iso so i just had to Mount it and then  create the virtual disk in iLO. 

[pjmas]

Do you have to have advanced support on your iLO for this to work?