ML370 Boot Order

[Jay Paroline]

Hello, we have an ML370 that we are trying to add some IDE drives to. Since the ML370 only has one IDE connector, we purchased a Promise Ultra133 for this purpose.

Unfortunately, when the card recognizes the drives attached to it, it registers itself as a bootable device and for whatever reason, the server tries to boot from one of those drives. When it fails, it halts the boot process and it is thus impossible to get into the BIOS settings.

The only way I have found to get into the BIOS is to remove the Ultra133 card and wait for the prompt to press F10, right before windows boots. This prompt is somehow linked to the SCSI boot drive as I do not get that prompt when the Ultra133 is in there.

Of course getting into the BIOS with the Ultra133 not connected doesn't do me any good becuase it does not let me specify the boot order. It's a catch-22, I need the promise card in and registered with the bios to control the boot order, but if I put the promise card in I can't get into the bios.

Help!

[Brian_Murdoch]

Hi Jay,

I suspect that your problem is due to the fact that BIOS (INT13) is enabled on the Promise controller and it's also in a primary PCI slot (Slot 1 or 2 on the ML370 G1).

Move the Promise controller to PCI slots 3,4,5 or 6. These are on the secondary PCI bus and should not clash with other devices on PCI bus 1.

(Please see attached document regarding the PCI slots).
If you have a Smart Array Controller installed, move it to PCI slots 1 or 2 and move the Promise card to slots 3,4,5 or 6 so that the Smart Array is always the boot device.

I hope this helps.

Brian

[Jay Paroline]

Unfortunately that did not help. I had already tried putting it in slot 1 and in slot 6, the behavior is the same. According to Promise tech support, there is no way to disable Int13 on the Ultra133 card.

The Ultra133 is the only PCI card installed; the SCSI controller is built into the motherboard.

How do I find out what generation ML370 I have? It has a 1GHz processor if that helps at all.

[Brian_Murdoch]

Hi Jay,

Its a generation 1 (G1) Proliant ML370 if the CPU is 1Ghz.

If you fitted a cheap PCI Adaptec SCSI controller in slot 1 and ran the cable to your existing SCSI disk(s) then it would be the boot controller. Something like an Adaptec 2940 Ultra controller or 29160LP would be OK.

Due to the poularity of SATA controllers nowadays these SCSI adapters are becoming quite cheap or being even redundant when removed from systems.

It's maybe not what you wanted but it will be a solid workaround providing the Adaptec is in a PCI slot before the Promise.

You existing SCSI disk(s) which are non-raid will be seen OK.

I hope this helps.

Brian