Ghost problems with IBM xSeries 3

[PGNMAN]

I am using the ServerGuide 6.06 CD to setup the drives. The IBM partition is created and I continue through the ServerGuide version of the Win2k installation (which is bad by the way...) NOTE: I also used UpdateXpress CD v1.04 to update my firmware.

I install Win2k Server and a few apps - we are creating a base image for all of our servers - and then I run SYSPREP and image the partition with Ghost. Then we are installing apps onto the new server that has been created from the image to create machines with exchange, web, infrastructure, application.

I create a Ghost image of the partition - not the entire disk, since I am using this image for serveral models (x342, x360, x232)

On the new machine, I boot with the ServerGuide CD and wipe the drives clean and re-initialize the array. I create a RAID1 set for the OS and RAID 5 the rest of the drives (I have tried different combinations of RAID1 & RAID5 to see if this may have been the problem). I then create the system partition and exit ServerGuide. I boot from a network diskette and map a drive to the share with my image. I run Ghost and click Local/Partition/From Image and then create a partition and pull down the image. When I reboot the machine, I get the message &quot;Windows 2000 could not statr because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows 2000 Root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe&quot;

I follow the procedure AGAIN, and put the same Ghost image on top of the same partition I just created, and it starts jsut fine. I have been pestering IBM for 2 months and they have not responded. Any help would be appreciated,

Thank you

Tom Barnett

 

[EuanPirie]

Thats the exact same config as mine, except I used Drive Image Pro and not ghost. Worth a try if you've got it.

 

[mickey999]

Thank God...It W O R K S!!!!!!!
I took an Image from IBM xSERIES 342 (2x18GB RAID 1)with Ghost 7.0 via TCP/IP.
I used a WIN98 boot disk with the following configuration:

Config.sys:

device=himem.sys
device=emm386.exe noems i=b000-b7ff
dos=high,umb
files=100
buffers=30
DEVICEhigh=\net\protman.dos /I:\net
DEVICEhigh=\net\dis_pkt.dos
DEVICEhigh=\net\E100B.dos
lastdrive=z

autoexec.bat:

smartdrv.exe /x
@echo off
\net\netbind.com
ghost

To make this work you must first update the BIOS Flash Firmware to version 1.05 or later .If you don't make the update the ghost will never works.
...nine days of searching...
HAVE A PARTY (Only the Greeks can do...????)

 

[EuanPirie]

So this is the method for an x342, does the same process work on a x232? Both my x232 and x342 behave in this manner.

 

[RedSonja]

Hi,
have the same problem you all talk about. Ghosting a IBM x342 with ServeRaid adapter will cause Ghost to hang when selecting the drive.
The suggested solution isn't working for me, so i am doing something wrong?

Some info:
- x342 with ServeRaid 4L/4M (bios 4.70.17)
- RAID 5 configuration
- x342 flash bios upgraded to 1.07
- Ghost coperate edition V7.5
Questions
- Is the DOS version important when booting from the DOS disk?
- What makes the suggested config.sys and autoexec.bat so special the it solves the problem (emm386 or the cddriver)?
- Should I use an ASPI driver?

I hope anyone can help me, thanks in advance!
Peter

 

[buzzyx]

I also got a DPMI error... Then i created a bootable peer-peer disk with norton ghost 2003...
When the server started it reported me that the NIC driver was incorrect.. (nothing to worry)....
After that ghosts started en I was able to do a backup of my IBM X235 with RAID 5i controller (3 disks RAID 5 Config) onto an NTFS partition....

GREAT problem solved....

p.s. one step before i tried OPENDOS (not msdos) and i came a bit closer to a working ghost... (maybe for some people this could be the solution)

 

[neilcresswell]

Hi All,

The IBM ServeRaid Controller Cards DO run Ghost, you just need to be aware of a couple of key points...

1) In Versions of ServeRaid Firmware 4.3, 4.7 & 4.84 the int13 Support (the ability to directly access the disk) was quite poor, this led to many systems being unable to support ghost. Version 5.1 of the firmware puts full support back in..

2) The ServeRaid card configured with the battery backup cache module 3HB 4HB 5i needs to have the cache set to write through rather than write back (configured in the serveraid manager prog), this makes ghosting more stable.

3) As listed in previous posts, the EMM memory needs to be excluded from the d000-dfff address range.

N

 

[hmwong]

I tried all the above suggestions but still failed. Did anyone using Ghost 7.5 to clone a NT 4.0 server with the following config?

-IBM x360 4CPU with 4G RAM, bios 1.03
-ServerRaid 4L with Bios upgraded from 4.84 to 5.10
-RAID 1 local mirrored disk with one hot spare
-Ghost ver.7.5

Ghost works perfectly with 2G RAM but complaining &quot;no DPMI&quot; when boot with 4G RAM.

Would anyone give me some lights. Many Thanks.

Honming

 

[neilcresswell]

In the Ctrl I ServeRaid Bios I think there is something to enable Bios 4gb+ compatability mode.
Basically there is a problem addressing 4gb+ of ram at a DOS level. Remove 2gb of Ram if the bios setting does not exist.

N

 

[TimmyT2002]

I have done what eveyone else suggests, and Ghost 2003 works with my x345 ServeRAID 5i. I can successfully image my first logical drive onto my second logical Fat32 drive. I have 2 extra harddrives to test. I put them in, have Support CD make the new drives online. Then I put in Partition Magic to create a new Active NTFS partition. Then I boot to Ghost and recover the partition image to the new harddrives. It finishes, then it reboots. Then I get a blank screen with a flashing cursor in the upper right hand corner... no response. Has anyone seen this?

RAID configuration
Drive 0: 18.2G Drive
Drive 1: 18.2G Drive
Drive 2: 18.2G Drive

Drives 0-1 are RAID 0 and Spanned into a logical drive to make 34G of Space

Drive 2 is on it's own logical drive space and formatted as FAT32. This drive is for the swap file, images, and misc files.


TimmyT2002

 

[neilcresswell]

When you create the image you need to include the switch
-IB as in (ghost.exe -ib) to save the boot information. When you restore you also need the switch.

Dont know why but sometimes you need it....

N

 

[lmbedore]

I've had basically the same problems as many have mentioned above while dealing with x345's using the ServRAID 5i. Thus far I have only tried to upload/download images with ghost on RAID-1 arrays consisting of 18gb drives.

First, ghost would be able to detect the logical drive, but when I selected the drive (either for image upload or download), ghost would freeze. This problem was resolved by loading the IPSRASPI driver from the ServRAID 5i DOS tools disk.

Once I got past this step, I could upload an image from a RAID1 machine, though it would only read from the first drive in the array. Technically, it can get away with doing this, though it doesn't make much sense (the controller should interleave reads for higher performance automatically). I didn't think much of it and downloaded that image to another x345 with the same hardware.

The image downloaded, but was only written to the first of the 2 drives in the RAID-1 array. Just like TimmyT2002, the array could not boot and would sit at a blank screen with a blinking cursor. Clearly in my case this was due to the MBR being different between the two drives.

I've applied all the fixes mentioned by everyone thus far with the exact same results. I have not yet tested this on a RAID-5 set, but will be doing so this week. I expect to end up with the same results.

The problem appears to be poor int13h support by the ServRAID BIOS. Array size/geometry data all works correctly, and basic read support appears to be okay, but native write support based on int13h is shot. The ASPI driver doesn't seem to remedy this at all.

It's a real shame that IBM can't put in the effort to have proper int13h support in a product line that's supposed to run all of their x86-based enterprise servers.

 

[hmwong]

Imbedore:

How do you load the IPSRASPI driver?

I tried loading through config.sys but still hung when selecting the target drive in a Partition to Image cloning.
Ghost cannot see the partitions.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Honming

 

[lmbedore]

In the config.sys, I had the following device line:
devicehigh=A:\ipsraspi.sys /F

There were two files that had to be copied to the boot disk: IPSRASPI.SYS and IPSRDOS.IDP, both were provided from the IBM ServRAID boot floppy that was created from the driver CD.

The ASPI driver didn't help me much. I have been in contact with Jerry Bennett at IBM, who has been very helpful. So far I haven't had any luck with his suggestions either. At this point we think that there's a problem with the DOS int13h compatibility with the ServRAID BIOS.

Jerry also suggested using a free IBM utility called RDM (Remote Deployment Manager). Information about RDM can be had from

http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/eserver/xseries/systems_management/rdm.html

 

[Shawnjbutt]

I AM REALLY Desperate!

I have an IBM x345 server with 3x 36GB HDD, RAID 5 with the ServeRAID 5i controller. Also using Ghost Corp Ed. 7.5.

I used a network boot disk and am able to connect to my GhostCast Session, but when I Highlight the Drive that I want to image, it HANGS.. Freezes! and that's it.

I tried the EMM386 option and it still doesnt work for me.

This weekend is my last weekend, before I lost my senses. I would highly appreciate if someone could help me.

Thanks

 

[neilcresswell]

Before you can get the 5i card to support Ghost, you need to change the controller cache mode to Write Through.
Go into the ServeRaid support program, right click on the controller and cache mode. Change to Write Through and then reboot the server.

You also need to make the aspi cd as detailed in this forum.

N

 

[Shawnjbutt]

Gentlefolks of this forum

Regretfully, none of the solutions worked for me and I finally switched over to PowerQuest's DeployCenter and it worked like a charm for me. What took me 2 weeks unsuccessfully with Norton was fixed in 2 days with DeployCenter [That includes the learning curve I had to endure with a new product]

On Ghost I did the following as prescribed by the Tribal Knowledge of the Elders:
1. Set the Cache-mode on the 5i Controller from Write-back to write-through [IBM, however, recommends that we set it to Write-back for straight-through connections and Write-Through ONLY for Cluster-attached storage controllers.
2. Copied both the IPSRASPI.SYS and IPSRDOS.IDP files to the Ghost Boot Disk.
3. Inserted the line &quot;devicehigh=A:\ipsraspi.sys /F&quot; in the CONFIG.SYS file.
4. Inserted the following lines in the CONFIG.SYS file too:
&quot;&quot;&quot; device=himem.sys
device=emm386.exe noems i=b000-b7ff
dos=high,umb
files=100
buffers=30 &quot;&quot;&quot;

Nothing worked. Thanks a million to PowerQuest who ACTUALLY claim that the support the Cloning of SERVERS and RAID.

 

[lmbedore]

Following Shawn's advice, I got the eval version of DeployCenter 5.5 to try with our x345's. I didn't have the same luck he had.
When the DeployCenter DOS floppies finished loading, the DeployCenter GUI loaded with a busy hourglass cursor, mouse frozen, and sat there indefinitely. I tried loading the IBM ASPI driver, but that caused the GUI to never load at all.
I tried contacting PowerQuest, but their email support form is broken too. Talk about bad luck!

 

[hariss]

I have an IBM x345 server with 3x 36GB HDD, RAID 5 with the ServeRAID 5i controller. Also using Ghost Corp Ed. 7.5.

but when use the network boot disk generated by the ghost wizard, it gives me the error:

error unabble to locate pci lan manager
the following are the possible causes:
1.the system may not support the pci bus.
2.the pci adapter may not be properly installed in a slot
3.some of the pci adapter ressources in configuration space may be invalid
check for possible errors listed above and run adapter diagnostics.
failure: driver did not load, NDIS environnement invalid.

any one to help
thx

 

[Shawnjbutt]

This reply is for &quot;lmbedore (IS/IT--Manageme)&quot;.

Buddy, there is a known problem with the GUI and the DOS drivers for mouse. I have the full product and I get excellent support everytime I call them.

Anyways, the Techs at PowerQuest requested me NOT to use the mouse or even &quot;MOVE&quot; it during the whole process. Try using the Hot Keys like &quot;ALT+S&quot; for save, etc, I hope you know that drill.

I've made over 50 images so far and everytime I even 'touched' the mouse accidentally while the image was being loaded or pulled the whole process would freeze. Load the mouse drivers if you want to, but avoid using it. Trust me. It works for me like a charm. Furthermore, forget about trying to load any aspi drivers. That's too much work for a product that asks for so little.

 

[zetrebu]

Does someone have an iso file of a ghost floppy working with the IBM x330 serie (with 4L) ?
Thanks for your help