This was written in acknowledgment of the assistance I got from the great people at Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1lnpixw/no_such_thing_as_a_free_server/.
Recently I was given two HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen9 servers from a friend of mine. I tried booting one of them up and I never really understood how slow these servers will boot. I used to run a Dell r710 (still do at the time of writing this) and the time it takes to start is significantly less than the HPE. This is nothing short than annoying because when you trying to boot into different OS and update firmware, all requiring a lot of restarting, it starts to take the full 24hr day.
The Smart Array
The HPE has a Hardware RAID that was reporting miss configuration. On the Dell, I knew I had to boot to the special menu from the BIOS. This was not the same because the option to do that was either missing or greyed out. It kept reporting to use the Offline HPE Smart Storage Administrator (SSA). I found a website that talked about the SSA and it provided two options: Use the HPE Intelligent Provisioning or the Service Pack for ProLiant. The article that got me here is this: Notice: HPE Smart Storage Administrator (HPE SSA) – Offline Version of HPE SSA Is Being Discontinued.
The Intelligent Provisioning and the SPP
I first started with trying to get the Intelligent Provisioning to work. No matter if using a USB, DVD, or iLo virtual media, it did not work. Eventually after researching, it seems to stem from an error with the iLo4 and a previous firmware. These are some links to look into it but I am too lazy to look into it.
- https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00048622en_us&docLocale=en_US
- https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/product?language=en_US&kmpmoid=8255128&tab=driversAndSoftware
- https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=c04996097&docLocale=en_US
I eventually switched over the using the SPP. I had to use it thru iLo because I did not have a DVD that can handle it and the USB’s kept freaking out. I first updated the firmware then used the Smart Storage Administrator that was also provided to fix the raid card.
How did I get the service pack for ProLiant? and iLo Advanced?
I can’t reveal how I got these, I can only thank the UK and Reddit for their assistance in my debugging of this server.
Next?
One the raid was finally set up, I installed debian, them proxmox, and I am now working on moving my containers from one server the this one.
Thank you all for reading.
Sincerely,
Judah Nava
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