Windows Server 2012 R2 on HP Microserver (N36L, N40L, N54L)

[CBenz]

Hi everybody,

since Windows Server 2012 R2 is about to be released in a few days I would like to ask if the issue regarding the HP NC107i integrated network card has been solved?

Installation of Server 2012 R2 is stuck at ~84% because the NIC driver is missing.

It was listed in the attached Document as a known issue at the end of the paper (page 10).

Thanks in advance.

P.S. This thread has been moved from Servers > General to ProLiant Servers - Netservers.
-HP Forum Moderator

[Bharat Khetani]

Same here.  R2 has now been released.  Where are our updated drivers?

[Jahn Peter]

Same here. :(

[francis_f]

the same on J08, but got a blue screen :-(

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-HP-Consumer-Products-and-Technologies/microserver-bluescreen-HPSA2-sys/m-p/3022849/highlight/false#M11540

[oceang]

Another user of 4 microservers who has the same question.  Has anyone got any idea how to get HP to respond on progress?

[Dennis Handly]

>Has anyone got any idea how to get HP to respond on progress?

This is a peer to peer forum, not an official HP support site.
Have you tried contacting the HPSC?
http://www.hp.com/go/hpsc

[oceang]

I have raised  a ticket on the HPSC in Australia and am awaiting their response.

---

@Dennis Handly wrote:

>Has anyone got any idea how to get HP to respond on progress?

This is a peer to peer forum, not an official HP support site.
Have you tried contacting the HPSC?
http://www.hp.com/go/hpsc

---

[oceang]

I have had the following response from HP.   First up, the earliest resolution looks like December. Second up, it is a possibility that HP just wont support R2 on Gen7 ever.

Here is the response for those interested.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

This is with reference to the Windows OS 2012 R2 installation for your product HP Proliant N40L G7 MicroServer.

I checked my internal resources and found the information about the drivers for 2012 R2. The driver for Windows 2012 R2 is still in a testing phase and full functional drivers are expected to be released sometime in December of this year.

However, I see the server you have is a G7 server and as per the OS support matrix G7 server is not tested for MS Windows 2012 installation.

Please check the OS support matrix from the below link-

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/windows/index.html.

For HP Proliant N40L G7 MicroServer So 2012 R2 may not be tested as it is not a recommended OS for this model.

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[Whootowl]

I'm thinking that (given the same NIC hardware/firmware) the tested driver solution should work for previous models.  It is doubtful that Hp would deliberately gimp the installer to refuse installation on G7.  Hp is merely reiterating that they will officially support only those OS listed in the product's matrix (so they need not take calls from G7 owners).

It is perplexing in my mind why the existing driver for this NIC would have no issues with Windows Server 2012 but would be an insurmountable obstacle for installation of 2012 R2.  I'm not aware of any changes to the underlying driver architecture.  Why would "testing" even be necessary?  It seems the driver was merely omitted from the library of "signed" drivers.  This is forcing many users to install a supported NIC, but such is work/expense that should be totally unnecessary and this forces the user to consume a precious card slot.   If Hp is trying to encourage users to purchase a new server, they should realize that for lack of a good user experience folks will likely look to other OEMs for their new server.

[tygarbyte]

Just in  case some one googles this.... or decide to update to 2012r2 / win8 from an earlier OS

SOFTPAQ NUMBER:  SP64420
PART NUMBER: N/A
FILE NAME:  SP64420.EXE
TITLE:  System ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade for HP ProLiant MicroServer Servers (For USB Key-Media).

VERSION:  2013.10.01A
LANGUAGE:  English
ROM FAMILY: O41
REVISION: A

CATEGORY:  ROMPaqs

DIVISIONS:  Systems

PRODUCTS AFFECTED:  HP ProLiant MicroServer Servers

OPERATING SYSTEM:  All

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION:  N/A

PREREQUISITE:  N/A

EFFECTIVE Date:  11/16/2013

ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION ALLOWED:  Yes

SOFTPAQ UTILITY VERSION: 1.0

SUPERSEDES:  sp54344

DESCRIPTION:   This release provides updated system ROM images for the latest maintenance releases of HP ProLiant MicroServer Servers.






Important Notes -


This SoftPaq version will execute the "kbd" utility to upgrade the system bios due to a bootblock change.






New Features -


HP ProLiant MicroServer system ROM O41 (10/01/2013)
_____________________________________________
None






Problems Fixed -


HP ProLiant MicroServer system ROM O41 (10/01/2013)
_____________________________________________
Addressed an issue where Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 may stop responding while booting the operating system.






Known Problems -


HP ProLiant MicroServer system ROM O41 (10/01/2013)
_____________________________________________

None

[oceang]

I can confirm that this new BIOS fixes the problems with both Windows Server 2012 R2 (with Essentials Role) and also with Windows 8.1.

For the time being, I have dropped using the "Hacked" BIOS (which I use to put my OS drive in the ODD bay), and have reverted to HP's new standard BIOS in order to get the onboard NIC working.

BTW, I am also using the latest 64 bit Broadcom driver version 16.2.0.4b, which I downloaded from the Broadcom site.

[Dakin]

The BIOS flash also worked for me. Many thanks. Nice to finally get my server working.

https://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdHome/?sp4ts.oid=4310887&spf_p.tpst=swdMain&spf_p.prp_swdMain=wsrp-navigationalState%3DswEnvOID%253D4139%257CswLang%253D%257Caction%253DlistDriver&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken#Driver - Network

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[Dakin]

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken link. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[SplatMan_DK]

Just an update for everybody else comming across this thread in the future:

You likely can't get to the firmware now, because the support has "expired" on your product. So in essence, the firmware update just sits there in the download section but you can't download it without purchasing a new HP support agreement.

Incidently such an agreement costs roughly 80% the price of a whole new server, making it totally pointless to buy it.

I am honestly extremely dissapointed by HP's move to require an "active support agreement" in order to provide me with a firmware. I cannot use this firmware without being a HP customer; it is only usable for my HP product. You already took my money - so why not help me, and keep me as a happy customer? If you absolutely MUST charge for firmware downloads then the very least you could do is making the price acceptable. As it stands now the price for me is 140 USD less than the cost of a brand new server.

So that is what I will do. Get a nother server that is. I will sell my HP Microserver on eBay and purchase something else, since this one apparently can't get Windows 2012 R2 installed.

And no, the next one won't be a HP.

This new and extremely customer-hostile policy is a real dealbreaker for me. I will take my business to someone who values me as a customer.

[Luxaetern]

You don't need a active SA, just download it from the PUBLIC FTP!!

Go to the page which describes the Package you want to download and look for the Setupname.

For the Bios this would be "SP64420.exe".

Now go to one of the online ftp index services and search for SP64420.

My favorite Indexer is "NAPALM" http://www.search-ftps.com/.

This works with the most Packages from HP and others.

Hope I can help someone with this

Regards,

LuxAetern.

AS.:Sry for my English ^^

[Moderator edit: The above link is no longer.]

[mikster22]

hi, so i started trying to install Windows Server 2012 r2 x64 standard, i sucesfully installed on to a new SSD by disabling the NIC from the BIOS, HDD still do not show up, so i need to download some more drivers but here is the bios update i found: http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/pubsw-windows/p1657370250/v93269/SP64420.exe 

which is this bios update documented here: https://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdDetails/?sp4ts.oid=4310887&spf_p.tpst=swdMain&spf_p.prp_swdMain=wsrp-navigationalState%3Didx%253D%257CswItem%253DMTX_57720d956df94dfcbaa0e28256%257CswEnvOID%253D4139%257CitemLocale%253D%257CswLang%253D%257Cmode%253D%257Caction%253DdriverDocument&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vi... <- that second link might not work but its just the discription page.

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken links. You can also refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[Loui3]

Since I upgraded to the new BIOS my network is not working. Now i'm wondering if I should just load the default driver for the Microserver see if that works... Any update on this issue yet?

[MarkRadaba]

Does anyone know where I can download the updated BIOS for the ProLIant MicroServer N40L?  I bought this server in 2011 and my warranty has since expired.  I'm trying to upgrade the OS to Server 2012 R2, and I'm hitting this well documented issue of the NIC card driver/BIOS issue.

It's heartbreaking that HP won't even allow you to download a driver if your warranty has expired.  I believe this came with a 1-year warranty, which doesn't give a customer long to download updated drivers, especially when HP's technical papers and driver/BIOS alerts are not very clear.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Pog60]

I've just contacted HP although it now seems to be all premium 0845 numbers only!

Having advised many clients to purchase HP servers, because of their reliabilty. I was horrified to find that I am unable to get a BIOS upgrade or drivers on our training/demo/test Microservers, so we can start to play with Server 2016. I wish I had known this a month ago as we sold 2 high end HP servers which we may not be able to support in a couple of years time.

If this is a ploy to sell more servers due to the cloud reducing sales, then it will backfire as we have just bought our fist Fujitsu server and it's brilliant!

I am speechless with the change!

[Jimmy Vance]

ROM updates do require a valid warranty or service contract, (in some cases ROM updates are made available to all customers). Driver updates are available to all customers.

I don't recall the date when this was put into effect, but it was early in 2014. All the information is listed here: http://h20565.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04044353

This snippet shows the pertinent detail:

Access to HPE support materials applies to all ProLiant generations and includes downloads on HPE Support Center (HPESC) ( click here to go to the HPE Support Center ) for BIOS System ROM & Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD). These downloads are classified as BIOS System ROM.

Validation is not required for iLO, controller components either embedded or external to the system board, drivers or any other download content in the Drivers, Software & Firmware section of HPESC. “Critical” related firmware updates (addressing safety and security fixes) will be made available to all ProLiant customers outside of a warranty or support contract and are governed by "customer terms of use".

[Moderator edit: Removed the broken links. You may refer to https://support.hpe.com/]

[RobC0704]

I think this is the first time I have ever seen this and we buy alot of enterprise class hardware including HPE products. The ROM in question is required to use onboard harware with any OS newer than 2008 R2.  This will definitely impact our future buying of HP products. We simply will not take the chance that our hardware will no longer work the way it should because we can't get a simple rom update.

[ElectricHuman]

Having been through the rather excruciating and time consuming process of trying to load Windows server 2012 R2 essentials onto my now 3 year od HP N54L microserver, imagine my delight to discover at the end of the road all I needed to do was update the BIOS?  Thank you so much your comment which confirms the topic of the thread in which it appears.  However I have one question, which I suspect is self evident but after so much effort I want to be wrong.  The question then, if I update the BIOS will I lose access to the the addiitonal caddy, which curently houses my OS and an extra drive?  Many thanks in advance.