Not really but I worked around the problem by deactivating the BIOS installation on the Adaptec card (or BIOS something). With this configuration you cannot boot on your HDDs connected to your Adaptec Card.
So as my initial requirement was to have a HA server with RAID capabilities, I added an SSD HDD to my server and connect it to the motherboard to boot on. I use two HDDs configured as RAID 1 connected to my Adaptec. The OS is installed on my SSD card and Data are on the RAID 1 storage space.
It's a really stupid problem ! You can buy a Server made in China for half price but really compatible with all hardware in the world ! I suspect Dell to have this problem unresolved to oblige people to buy a RAID Card from them at 800 € !!! Thanks a lot Mr Dell !!! But never ever Dell and I will never recommend a Dell server!
Is this in order to connect a device like an MD1000, 3000 etc? Is there another perc that is handling the internal drives, if so which controller is installed?
No this is not in order to connect an MD... and there is no PERC in my server. My RAID card is from Adaptec. I've installed that card in order to connect my two HDDs in a mirroring configuration. I needed real hardware RAID to install ESXi (my Dell server does not provide real RAID but a fake RAID only managed by Windows). So...
I deactivated the RAID card BIOS and was able to install ESXi . But now I can't boot on HDDs connected to my RAID card (as they are unknown in the the BIOS). So I think that I need to resolve the root cause : blocked by at initializing firmware interfaces. Is there any patch or firmware update that can resolve this problem?
I suspect that this could be caused by a problem with the UEFI driver that is running on this adapter that you're using. Some Dell servers pull information about each device in the system that has a UEFI driver running and uses that for Lifecycle Controller functionality. One thing that you can try is to start BIOS (F2), select iDRAC Settings, select the Lifecycle Controller menu and then disable "Collect System Inventory on Reboot". That will effectively prevent the server from attempting to pull information from the UEFI drivers that are running on the various devices. But if you want to view the inventory through Lifecycle Controller or check firmware versions through Lifecycle controller for performing updates through it, then you'll need to re-enable that "Collect System Inventory on Reboot" setting, at least temporarily. You might not be interested in that though.
Anyways, it's something to try. I'm not 100% sure that it'll solve your problem though.
You can also disable Lifecycle Controller completely from that same menu option. If you're not interested in using it, then there's no harm in disabling it. That also might solve your problem.
What's really annoying is the fact that I installed this exact same card into our old poweredge 1800 server, with no issues whatsoever. I updated the firmware on the lifecycle controller and it now takes about 5 minutes to get past the "initializing firmware devices" message, but now I can't see the drives Hyper V setup. (Once again this worked with the same OS disk and raid card on the old poweredge 1800, didn't even have to load the raid drivers) I really think something is going on with this main board.
The PowerEdge 1800 didn't have Lifecycle Controller and has no interaction with UEFI drivers. That's why you won't see this Adaptec controller get stuck in a similar manner as what you see on the T320. The T320 interacts with UEFI drivers and if there are issues with a device's UEFI drivers, then any number of unknown things can happen.
Did you try disabling Lifecycle Controller and Collect System Inventory on Reboot? If so, what was the result?
I suspect that the problem with the drives not appearing in Hyper-V setup is not directly related to the problem with "Initializing firmware interfaces". Do the drives appear in Device Manager on the Host OS of the Hyper-V system? Does the Adaptec controller appear in Device Manager on the Host OS with its drivers loaded?
I had the issue in which my PowerEdge R740xd was "stuck" at "Initializing Firmware Interfaces..."
That is, upon powering down the system and rebooting, the "stuck" state was as far as the server ever made it.
Eventually, after tens of minutes, I obtained a red box that displayed the error: "The system detected an exception during the UEFI pre-boot environment" ... -->RIP 66DC5633 DxeCore.efi +02E633 ...
I solved the issue by performing the following steps: 1. Power down the system 2. Removed all peripherals from the system. In my case, I physically removed 3 PCIe cards. 3. Powered on the system 4. The iDRAC booted successfully. 5. I updated the my BIOS from v1.25 to v1.37 6. I rebooted and the iDRAC booted successfully. 7. Power down the system 8. Add 1 of the 3 PCIe cards and Power on the system 9. The iDRAC booted successfully. 10. Repeat steps 7 through 9 for all PCIe cards.
pfff
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April 22nd, 2014 04:00
Not really but I worked around the problem by deactivating the BIOS installation on the Adaptec card (or BIOS something). With this configuration you cannot boot on your HDDs connected to your Adaptec Card.
So as my initial requirement was to have a HA server with RAID capabilities, I added an SSD HDD to my server and connect it to the motherboard to boot on. I use two HDDs configured as RAID 1 connected to my Adaptec. The OS is installed on my SSD card and Data are on the RAID 1 storage space.
It's a really stupid problem ! You can buy a Server made in China for half price but really compatible with all hardware in the world ! I suspect Dell to have this problem unresolved to oblige people to buy a RAID Card from them at 800 € !!! Thanks a lot Mr Dell !!! But never ever Dell and I will never recommend a Dell server!
DELL-Chris H
Moderator
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9.7K Posts
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December 10th, 2013 14:00
PFFF,
Is this in order to connect a device like an MD1000, 3000 etc? Is there another perc that is handling the internal drives, if so which controller is installed?
Let me know.
pfff
1 Rookie
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4 Posts
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December 11th, 2013 01:00
Hi Chris
Thank you for your post.
No this is not in order to connect an MD... and there is no PERC in my server. My RAID card is from Adaptec. I've installed that card in order to connect my two HDDs in a mirroring configuration. I needed real hardware RAID to install ESXi (my Dell server does not provide real RAID but a fake RAID only managed by Windows). So...
I deactivated the RAID card BIOS and was able to install ESXi . But now I can't boot on HDDs connected to my RAID card (as they are unknown in the the BIOS). So I think that I need to resolve the root cause : blocked by at initializing firmware interfaces. Is there any patch or firmware update that can resolve this problem?
Regards,
johngoodie
2 Posts
0
April 21st, 2014 07:00
Having the same issue with a Adaptec 5405 in a poweredge T320. Did you ever figure this out?
tester25
626 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 21:00
I suspect that this could be caused by a problem with the UEFI driver that is running on this adapter that you're using. Some Dell servers pull information about each device in the system that has a UEFI driver running and uses that for Lifecycle Controller functionality. One thing that you can try is to start BIOS (F2), select iDRAC Settings, select the Lifecycle Controller menu and then disable "Collect System Inventory on Reboot". That will effectively prevent the server from attempting to pull information from the UEFI drivers that are running on the various devices. But if you want to view the inventory through Lifecycle Controller or check firmware versions through Lifecycle controller for performing updates through it, then you'll need to re-enable that "Collect System Inventory on Reboot" setting, at least temporarily. You might not be interested in that though.
Anyways, it's something to try. I'm not 100% sure that it'll solve your problem though.
You can also disable Lifecycle Controller completely from that same menu option. If you're not interested in using it, then there's no harm in disabling it. That also might solve your problem.
johngoodie
2 Posts
0
April 25th, 2014 14:00
What's really annoying is the fact that I installed this exact same card into our old poweredge 1800 server, with no issues whatsoever. I updated the firmware on the lifecycle controller and it now takes about 5 minutes to get past the "initializing firmware devices" message, but now I can't see the drives Hyper V setup. (Once again this worked with the same OS disk and raid card on the old poweredge 1800, didn't even have to load the raid drivers) I really think something is going on with this main board.
tester25
626 Posts
0
April 25th, 2014 15:00
The PowerEdge 1800 didn't have Lifecycle Controller and has no interaction with UEFI drivers. That's why you won't see this Adaptec controller get stuck in a similar manner as what you see on the T320. The T320 interacts with UEFI drivers and if there are issues with a device's UEFI drivers, then any number of unknown things can happen.
Did you try disabling Lifecycle Controller and Collect System Inventory on Reboot? If so, what was the result?
I suspect that the problem with the drives not appearing in Hyper-V setup is not directly related to the problem with "Initializing firmware interfaces". Do the drives appear in Device Manager on the Host OS of the Hyper-V system? Does the Adaptec controller appear in Device Manager on the Host OS with its drivers loaded?
SpaceCar
1 Rookie
•
1 Message
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March 7th, 2018 09:00
I had the issue in which my PowerEdge R740xd was "stuck" at "Initializing Firmware Interfaces..."
That is, upon powering down the system and rebooting, the "stuck" state was as far as the server ever made it.
Eventually, after tens of minutes, I obtained a red box that displayed the error:
"The system detected an exception during the UEFI pre-boot environment"
...
-->RIP 66DC5633 DxeCore.efi +02E633
...
I solved the issue by performing the following steps:
1. Power down the system
2. Removed all peripherals from the system. In my case, I physically removed 3 PCIe cards.
3. Powered on the system
4. The iDRAC booted successfully.
5. I updated the my BIOS from v1.25 to v1.37
6. I rebooted and the iDRAC booted successfully.
7. Power down the system
8. Add 1 of the 3 PCIe cards and Power on the system
9. The iDRAC booted successfully.
10. Repeat steps 7 through 9 for all PCIe cards.