2900 SUU troubles.

Question

Following the successfull application of SUU (Version 1.6.0.193) to my PE2900, my server stops following the BMC portion of the POST.   The history of the system prior to application of SUU (Version 1.6.0.193) follows...   My server was built and received in July of 2007 in the following configuration:   PE2900 BIO's:  1.3.7PERC 5/i FW: 5.1.1-0040    PERC 5/i DRV: 2.08.00.32PERC 5/E FW: 5.1.1-0040    PERC 5/E DRV: 2.08.00.32   I cleared the system of the factory install and used the ' Installation and Server Management Version 5.2' to boot the system and commence the RAID configuration and OS load.   Adapter 0 (PERC 5/i) was used to configure Physical Disk 01:08 and 01:09 ( 36GB 15K SAS Drives) in a RAID 1.     - Dell Utility partition was not selected to be used.   -  Twelve gigabyte space was defined for use by the operating system.   - Vanilla installation of Windows 2003 Standard was installed.   System loaded without issue and I was able to login and conduct a manual installation of Windows 2003 Service Pack 2.  (System rebooted without any issues.)   Additional security patches from microsoft were applied to meet government network compliance requirements.  (System rebooted without any issues.)   At this point, system was configured for preferences prior to conducting SYSPREP.  SYSPREP was performed to reseal system per Microsoft guidance.  System was rebooted using BART PE (version 3.1.10a) and a snapshot (SNA) of the system was taken via Drive Snapshot (Version 1.38).  The SNA was was transferred to a production system where it was incorporated into a BART PE bootable DVD ( Windows 2003 Enterprise with Service Pack 2).   The server from which the SNA was built was rebooted and the PERC 5/i was cleared and reconfigured as the RAID-1 utilizing the entire space for the Virtual Disk (33.375 GB).  The system was rebooted and the BART PE DVD was used to bring the system up into a RAMDISK.  Drive Snapshot was used to create the primary partition ( twelve gigabyte) and set it to ACTIVE upon the reconfigured RAID-1.  The snapshot restored to the system without trouble and the system was rebooted without the BART PE DVD.  The post and boot sequence were conducted without troubles and the SYSPREP'd OS conducted it's first phase wizard configuration without troubles and the system rebooted for the changes to take effect.  After the reboot, the system came up without incident and I was able to login to check the system configuration.  There were no reported system errors.   System has remained operational without incident thru January 2008.   I obtained ' OM.5.3.0.1_SUU_A00.ISO' from the dell support website and created a DVD from it.  The contents from the DVD were transfered to the system and executed.  The SUU (Version 1.6.0.193) applied all drivers and firmware changes that could be done while within the windows environment. The SUU staged the BIO's for flashing and reported no errors.  The SUU prompted that the system must be restarted for the BIO's and firmware changes to take effect.  I rebooted the system and the BIO's flash was applied without troubles.  The system rebooted displaying the following during the POST sequence:   PE2900 BIO's:  2.0.1PERC 5/i FW: 5.2.1-0067PERC 5/E FW: 5.2.1-0066   When the BMC portion completed following the five second waite period, a line return occured like normal with a flashing prompt.  The system does continue beyond this point.  Rebooting the system brings the system back to this same point with the same result.   The SUU DVD has been used upon numerous DELL Servers but unfortunately I only have one 2900.   Of note, the BART PE DVD was created using the original PERC 5/i DRV: 2.08.00.32 and PERC 5/E DRV: 2.08.00.32 which will still boot the system via the DVD and allow access to the restored SNA (image) content upon the partitions residing on the RAID-1   Has anything changed in the driver or firmware for the PERC 5 SAS's that would now prevent the system from finding or executing the boot partition?   Any help would greatly be appreciated.   Thank you.   Jay Brown Systems Administrator

AXI · Answer

update the bios to version 2.1.1

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R178066&SystemID=PWE_2900&servicetag=&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=11598&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=8&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=6&libid=1&fileid=242331

you never mention what the BMC version is .....current is 1.77

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R169464&SystemID=PWE_2900&servicetag=&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=5814&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=5&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=4&libid=29&fileid=230927

check the bios and make sure the sata drives are set to off......

PowerEdge Hardware General

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