HP Smart Array P400 and SLES10 issue

My boss recently dropped an HP ProLiant DL385 G2 on my desk (Literally, he walked in with the thing under one arm!) and asked me to install OES 2 on it. So, I fired up the server and pressed F8 after the Smart Array P400 initialized to configure the array. I set it up as RAID 5 with one logical volume. The server doesn't have a floppy of CD/DVD drive, but I have an external USB CD/DVD, so I put the SLES10 SP1 disk in the drive and rebooted the server. The Installation screen came up and selected Installation, hit Next, etc, etc. All was well for a few moments until I accepted the license agreement. Then the hardware scan came back and reported that there were no hard drives available for installation!

Cutting to the chase - creating the array and logical volume from the SmartStart CD Release 8.10 resolved the issue and the installation completed successfully. Creating the array and logical volumes from the Option ROM utility accessible during boot caused the installation to fail.

The Long version, a litany of things that failed:

• Not what I wanted to see. All the lights on the drives were green, so I shut down the server and reseated the P400 (PCI Express) card and all of the cables. Started up again and failed at the same point. The installer couldn't detect the array.


• Booted up again, deleted and recreated the array. Installation failed.


• Downloaded and installed Smart Array Firmware Maintenance Release 8.20. Install failed.


• Thought it might be the external USB drive, but the CD booted OK, also the HP SmartStart CD booted OK (and recognized the array). There is no SmartStart CD for Linux installations, anyway.


• Downloaded the latest cciss driver for the P400 array card. Copied the files to a USB stick and tried to add the new drivers during Installation. It didn't make a difference.


• Finally, I was browsing the HP Support Forums. There are lots of reports of similar issues when installing RHEL with the P400 smart array card, but one replier mentioned the need to create the array from the ACU (Array Configuration Utility) on the Smart Start CD. I popped in the CD, Release 8.10, deleted and recreated the RAID 5 array, then created a logical volume. Suddenly the Installer could "see" the hard drive and installation was a piece of cake after that.

Comments

[sergio]

I'm trying your solution, it this works you have saved my life my friend!
I'm been hitting my head against the wall for 1 week trying to make this damn card to work on linux.

[ComputerGod]

I'm not sure about integrating the XP drivers - it's been a few months since I did this. But I keep thinking there was a way to add more drivers after booting off the HP SmartStart CD. I see there's a new release of the SmartStart CD for the DL385 G2 (release 8.15 dated 17-NOV-2008). It doesn't mention XP, but does apparently have drivers for Server 2003.

The SmartStart .iso is a free download from the HP Support site.

[Wousipx]

Thanks mate,

I hope this will resolve my problems.
I also had this issue while installing win xp on the dl385 g2

Ps: Is integrating the drivers in the Xp cd an option ?