ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Can't Load Windows Server 2008 R2

[SonnyP]

Hi,

We have a ProLiant DL380 Gen9 that recently had Windows Server 2008 R installed on it. It was working for several years; however, recently, one of the RAID drives died, so we swapped it out and it rebuilt fine. Then the LAN port 1 would sometimes not become active after restarting the server, but would load Windows Server 2008 R2. 

Now, Windows Server 2008 R2 doesn't load at all and the LAN port 1 only has 1 green blinking light. I can ping its IP; however, since Windows can't load, I can't ping its name.

How do I go about trying to get the data off of the RAID drives?

I tried to boot this server from a Windows Server 2008 R2 USB drive that was formatted as UEFI or Legacy and either one would boot to Windows. I was trying this Windows bootup method in hopes of trying to access the Windows Repair screen to repair this if it was possible.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thank You Very Much,

Sonny

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. Installing and upgrading HP Insight Management 7.0 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clusters

2. Implementing Microsoft® Windows® Server 2008 R2 on HP servers, integration note

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[SonnyP]

Hi,

Thank you very much for the links.

Windows Server 2008 R2 was already installed in our server 10 years ago. 

It just recently had issues loading Windows Server 2008 R2.

Any help is very much appreciated. 

Thank you very much,

Sonny

[Tam92]

Hello,

This looks like the OS is corrupted. I would request you to check with the OS vendor if they can repair the OS.

From the hardware side, if physical drives and logical drives are in OK state, it rules out the hardware. However we would need to look at the logs to verify the same.

You may check in iLO and SSA for any error message and share it here.

Thanks,

TAM

[SonnyP]

Hi Tam,

Thank you very much for your reply. Sorry, just to elaborate more:

This server had the following issues:

- 1 HDD failed, so I replaced it with another one and the RAID rebuilt itself.
- The smart battery is dead.
- The front panel's Health LED is amber.
- Before we lost Windows Server 2008 OS, we would experience issues where we couldn't ping the IP that was assigned to it, even though we could see the OS.
- There was an error that read: Embedded Flash/SD-Card failed: Controller firmware
revision 2.10.00 NAND read failure, so we took this SD-Card out and flipped it over to make this error go away; however, the one side is still presumed to have issues and this SD-Card appears to be needing a replacement.

Before, if we restarted a few times, the OS would actually load. Now, it stopped loading.

Is there a way for us to pull the data off of the RAID drives from this server?

Please let me know at your earliest convenience. 

Sincerely,

Son

[SonnyP]

Hi Tam,

Also, is there a way I can boot up from a USB drive so that I can attempt to do an OS repair? I have tried to create a Windows Server 2008 R2 bootable USB drive that was in UEFI or Legacy mode and both couldn't load the Windows installation screen. 

In Legacy mode, it would show that it was missing a .dll file. 

Please let me know at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Son

[Tam92]

Hello ,

As per the NAND error message, it looks like the NAND chip on the motherboard is corrupted and needs a replacement. This NAND chip is integrated on the motherboard.

I am sorry, i would not be able to assist you with the data recovery here as we handle the hardware breakfix issues. 

Regarding the OS repair, your OS vendor should be able to guide you in the recovery.

I would request you to log a case with HPE support to get the NAND issues fixed and if there are any other hardware issues , those are also taken care.

Once the underlying hardware is healthy, then you can focus on the OS.

Thanks,

TAM

[SonnyP]

Hi Tam,

Thank you very much. 

Is the NAND a factor as to why the OS is not loading?

Is there a link for me to submit a request to have the NAND replaced and to also get a quote on it?

Please let me know at your earliest convenience.

Thank you very much,

Son

[Tam92 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The NAND issue could be one of the reasons the server cannot complete POST and load the OS screen.

Please call the HPE support as per the region to log a case and get a quote.

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/collaterals/collateral.a00039121enw.html

Thanks,

TAM

[SonnyP]

Hi Tam,

Thank you very much. Will contact HPE support for the NAND to get replaced.

Sincerely,

Son