ml350e windows server 2012 r2 - p420 - Cant see disks

[Fieldy]

ml350e windows server 2012 r2 - p420 - Cant see disks

Having an issue with my ML350e, installed a p420 controller which has picked up all the disks and was able to configure a RAID 5 array within the ACU and 2 disks within a RAID1. I then tried to install server 2012R2 which when prompted with the choose a disk screen find that i cannot see the disks. I think that the driver for the P420 is not being seen within the installer. Have tried flashing BIOS to latest version have also tried the windows 2012 r2 supplementary pack from a memory stick with the "p420 driver". When searching the memory stick and finding the driver we clicked yes and it informs us that "no new device drivers were found. Make sure the installation media contains the correct drivers, and click OK". Has anyone seen this need help!!.

Alex

[BrettAtCumulus]

We are seeing the same thing here.

I've got a new DL310e G8 server here for a customer, we installed a new P420 1 GB FBWC RAID controller and set up the array just fine.  When I try to install Server 2012 R2 Essentials it comes up asking for drivers.

Checking on the support website for the P420 RAID controller I see driver files for Server 2012 and Server 2012 Essentials, but neither of these driver files have worked to install the controller.  There are no driver files under Server 2012 R2 for that RAID controller.  Are we missing something here?

[Torsten.]

see my post here regarding the supplemental:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/Win-Server-2012-ProLiant-ML350-G4P/m-p/6345737#M140485

[BrettAtCumulus]

Thank you Torsten for the quick response.  Unfortunately I've been reading through every piece of documentation on the Supplimental, and every thing that I have tried and done does not actually allow the installation.  This would allow a computer with Windows Server 2012 already installed to have a driver updated, but we don't have the OS installed yet on the server.  We can't, there is no driver to allow it to install on the server.

I will continue to work some more on this but unfortunately everything that I am seeing with the Supplimental doesn't actually fix this issue, as it is a means of upgrading drivers on a server which already has a function OS installed so that it can connect through SNMP to your host server for receiving updates.  This can't be done during the actual OS installation of Server 2012 R2.

[BrettAtCumulus]

After working on this more, I've found that the cause of the problem is actually the Dynamic SmartArray B120i drivers, not the SmartArray P420 drivers.  After manually providing the drivers for Windows Server 2012 R2 for the B120i, the Windows installation was able to continue on.  However, it is still hung up and will not install properly, as it continues to show that Windows cannot be installed on the array because it is not set up to boot from that device.  I've double checked and triple checked all settings in the array configuration utility and everything is set fine, but Windows just will not install.

[Torsten.]

How about disable the B120i in BIOS?

[BrettAtCumulus]

Disabling the B120i controller is something I have been trying to figure out throughout this process as well.  I have looked everywhere in the BIOS settings, and everywhere within the Storage Management utility.  Even after flashing the BIOS again I still do not see any option to disable this controller.  I can modify the boot controllers, which is what I had done previously and on numerous occassions checked to ensure that everything was set properly for installing Windows, but unfortunately there is no way to disable it.

Currently what I am trying is just removing the P420 RAID controller entirely.  So far it seems that Windows will allow me to install that way, but I highly doubt it is going to work at all with the P420 installed on this server.

UPDATE:  I was able to get Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials to install completely after manually providing the proper B120i SATA RAID controller drivers during installation if I had completely removed the P420 controller.

After some more looking around and disabling some other options I was finally able to locate and disable the onboard B120i controller.  I've reinstalled the P420 again, will try to recreate the array again, and try again to see if I can get Windows Server 2012 R2 to install.

[Reckless]

Hi,

I guess most of you have figured this out by now. You donot need to disable the integrated RAID controller B120i, when the Server 2012 installation asks for the driver you should give the drivers for the integrated RAID controller. Download

After that setup should detect the logical drive(s) on the P420.

[Pa0x]

Hello!

I'm having almost the same issue with an ML350e v2 gen8 that I received to setup, but I'm trying to install Windows Server 2019, and it doesn't see the disk/array. This server has 2 phisical 300Gb SAS disks and 1 logical disk in RAID 1 out of those two. I've installed the same Windows (via a bootable USB) in a DL380p gen8 and it worked just fine; the only significant difference I see between the two servers is that the DL380p comes with Smart Array P420i, whilst the ML350e comes with DYNAMIC Smart Array P420i.

I've already tried deleting and recreating the array, running the OS installation from the HP utility tool or from the boot up.

Please let me know hnow can I get the installation program to see the logical disk so I can install it. I have a growingly inpatient client waiting for this.

Big thank you.