rebuilding DL380 software from scratch 1

[wayne6f]

I bought a Compaq DL380 on ebay to use as a file server. I believe it was part of a cluster and has a remote insite board and a dual NIC card installed. I'm told it came from a running environment but the disks are wiped.

It doesn't boot to the floppy or the CD and has no video output.

How can I get the floppy to access so that I can redo the system and start over? It does appear to POST and gives no POST beeps and the network appears to be examined at least from looking at the network access light but is unresponsive otherwise.

 

[blister911]

Is the Remote Insight Board (RIB) integrated or an add-on card? I'm assuming that if you don't have video it's an add-on. You need to plug the monitor into the video output of the RIB. With the RIB installed the video output on the server is disabled.

You also need to connect the mouse and keyboard to it as well. There should be an adapter that connects to the RIB, and has two sets of mouse and keyboard connectors on it. One set plugs into the server the other is where you plug the mouse and keyboard into.

What version of DL380 do you have? Are you booting from a SmartStart CD? If so, what version, and did it come with the server?

Here is the link for the SmartStart 5.50 CD. If the server is a G1, then I think this is the one you want to boot from.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22678.html

 

[wayne6f]

Thanks Blister
I have the G1 version of the DL380.

The insight board is an add-on and may well be the problem. The system came with no mouse/keyboard adapter for the RIB so I can't really connect it to the machine.

I removed the RIB but still can't get the thing to boot. It won't boot from either the floppy or the CD though it does spin up the CD and acts like it reads it but with no output can't be sure.

From the behaviour of the ACT light on the panel it appears to be running but with no access to the floppy I can't do an erase. I have SmartStart 5.5 which I got by downloading it from HP. It does boot on other machines so seems to be good.

Is there any way to overide the existing setup to get back to a factory setting with no RIB?

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[blister911]

There should be a set of dip switches on the system board. One of them should reset the bios to factory default. On the newer models I believe it is #6, but I don't know on the G1 (might be #5). I've tried a quick search for it on HP.com, but came up empty, sorry.

I'll keep looking and if I find something I'll let you know.

 

[blister911]

Wayne,
This might help. Scroll to the bottom to get the the DL380.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?dlc=en&lc=en&product=470275&cc=us&docname=c00376492

It states that it is #6 to clear cmos and nvram.

One other thought, have you updated the bois on the server and the firmware all the components? If you have not, it is a good idea to get them up-to-date.

 

[wayne6f]

Thanks blister

I'll try that.

I haven't had a chance to do the bios and firmware as I haven't been able to boot the system yet. If I can get it up I was planning to run ERASE on it then do a system config. I do have all the current updates ready to go should I get the chance.

Wayne

 

[wayne6f]

Hi Blister;
I appreciate your help, but so far no joy. The switch settings for S1 you sent are for the later versions of the DL380 and they are a bit different. However, I have found the code for the one I have and regardless of how I set those switches I get no response to the video or the floppy. Each or them has a switch which would seem to control them. There are also switches to erase the NVRAM and override passwords so it would appear that the most likely explanation is a bad motherboard. My only problem with that analysis is that I have two identical systems and both behave the same way so that seems unlikely also.

I have stripped them down to just the basics. No addin boards, no drives, etc. I've also swapped processors and memory around between the two machines with no change and swapped floppy drives.

The seller insists that they came out of a working environment so I'm stumped. I have a hard time believing that the RIB board could have locked it up this way. At this point it feels like I bought a pile of junk.

Wayne

 

[blister911]

Just to clarify, when you set the switch to clear Nvram and Cmos (it should be the same dip switch; S6 on the document linked above) you power off the server, set the switch to on, and then boot the server, wait, power off, set dip switch back to off?

If so, how long are you waiting until you power the server off again? I know when I've done it, it takes several minutes (maybe 5 or more) before everything is cleared and it is ready to be shutdown.

 

[wayne6f]

I've let it run awhile, but doubt it was as long as 5 minutes. I'll try it again and let it cook longer.

 

[wayne6f]

Hi Blister;
I let it run for 45 minutes with switch 6 on. No change in behavior. No combination of switch settings in the S1 group ever results in either an output to the video, an access or boot from the floppy, or a boot from the CD although the CD does spin up and acts like it is being read.

The only things happening are flashes from the ACT light on the front panel and traffic from time to time on the NIC.

If it weren't for the fact that two identical machines behave the same way I'd just call it a bad deal and consider them as boat anchors.

I appreciate your help. Thanks for the effort.

 

[blister911]

Wayne,
Sorry to hear that it didn't work. Am I understanding you correctly that you got 2 servers from the same place that are not functioning?

Do you get any video if you try to boot the system without a CD or floppy in the drives?

BTW, regarding your commment about the RIB locking up the system, we've had several of them fail on us over the years and when they go, all sorts of strange things happen.

If you're looking for more things to troubleshoot: start by checking all the cable connections. Pull them off, make sure all the pins are straight, and re-seat them. Since you mentioned the server starts, I'd assume the power supply(s) are functional, but then again, at this point maybe that would be a bad assumption. If you have an extra video card around you could try installing it and see if you get anything that way. I don't like to suggest it, but since you already pulled the processor(s) once, you could check them as well for bent pins. You could see if it's possible to pull the CMOS battery and then remove power from the server.

If you are still in contact with where ever it is you got the server, find out if they have the RIB cable. Maybe you could also find out how long ago it was in use, what process they used to wipe the drives.

Good Luck

 

[gregmuir2]

We have two of these running in our rack. Everything is connected via KVM's when we need to work on them directly, everything else is done by remote desktop. Have you tried hooking up USB mice and keyboards?

The problem I had with these servers is limited to software and hardware. (yeah, only that!) The custom HP management software should make your life easier. It doesn't. Never installs correctly, nobody at HP knows what the software does, you can't reach them by phone. The hotswappable hard drives? Yeah, about that: don't hot swap them. Tech support said to me "Yes, I know we sold them as hotswappable but do you want to replace the dead drive or trash the entire array? No trash the array? Then turn the machine off, fool."

So, good luck! You'll need it.

 

[wayne6f]

Hi Greg
Thanks for the note. You must have a newer machine as this version doesn't offer any USB ports.

I used to get good help from Compaq but since the merger not so much.

Blister offered some last ditch suggestions above which I'll try. In the scheme of things if it had been just one machine I'd have just called it a junker but getting the same from both is testing karma.