Re: Squeeze on HP Proliant D580
On 2/11/2012 5:09 PM, Phil Dobbin wrote:
> I've just taken shipment of a HP Proliant D580 G2 (Quad Core 2.7GHz, 8
> GB RAM, 146GB RAID).
You should have been more specific, and stated you purchased a _used_
and very old Proliant DL580 G2. This box has been out of production for
5-6 years. The seller stripped all the drives to sell individually,
leaving you just one, so the onboard SmartArray 5i is useless.
And, BTW, this box doesn't have a quad-core CPU. It has 4 single core
CPUs: Intel Xeon MP 4MB L2 cache.
Keep in mind this box may not be in fully working order due to its age.
It may have failed parts causing some of your problems. It may not.
But you need to keep that in mind as you troubleshoot. Goes with the
territory when buying used gear.
> I intend to use Squeeze as the main OS & have downloaded the specific
> distro for this model with the firmware patch rolled in.
> As far as I can tell from the boot screen the machine was setup
> previously for Windows IIS so any help, pointers would be greatly
> appreciated.
This seems to tell us a couple of critical things.
1. The system isn't attempting to boot from your USB connected optical
drive.
2. It is attempting to boot from the previously configured array, but
the drives are missing
3. The seller didn't wipe the array configuration from the
system/SmartArray 5i ROM, nor wipe the dingle drive he left in the
machine for you.
Corrective action:
1. Configure the 5i BIOS to use the SCSI drive in JBOD mode. Delete
any and all previous RAID configurations that may be present.
2. Boot a Linux live CD from the internal slim optical drive. If this
drive is not present or does not work, try to configure the BIOS to boot
from your USB optical drive--it may not attempt such by default. Once
you are able to boot a live CD/DVD...
3. Use dd to completely wipe the SCSI drive clean. Normally you could
do just the first and last 2048 sectors or so, but I don't know where
the 5i stores its metadata on the drives. So you need may need to wipe
the whole drive--probably a good idea regardless. Depending on the
behavior of the 5i controller, you may need to pull the drive, connect
it to a standard SCSI controller in another machine and wipe the drive
there. This will present it's own set of problems because you very
likely don't have another computer in your possession with a standard
SCSI controller AND the required 80pin SCA hot swap cage to insert the
drive into.
Now that you hopefully have an optical drive the system will boot from,
and you have a clean hard disk, you should be able to boot and run the
Squeeze installer without these current problems.
A few words of advice:
1. Don't buy proprietary used servers with fancy sounding specs just
because the price looks good, _unless_ you already have professional
experience with this caliber of server hardware and know what you're
getting yourself into.
2. If you realize at this point that you're simply in over your head,
and/or you may not be able to get this box working before your 7/14/30
day 'get your money back' guarantee expires, you should send an email
now, or call first thing Monday, and see about returning this unit.
3. If you end up keeping it, no doubt you've noticed this box has dual
800w power supplies, enough fans to power a Vulcan bomber, and the noise
to go along with it. This isn't a machine for home use. I hope to
$deity's sake you plan to put this in the basement or some other place
in your home where the noise won't drive the wife, family, and pets insane.
--
Stan
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