BIOS/OS Help for ProLiant ML350 G6

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

A bit of backstory, Ive been working at a computer retail/repair store as an unpaid intern for 4 months.

My boss, being the great boss he is, up and gave me one of the servers that have been sitting under my bench. It's an HP ProLiant ML350 G6

It has 16GB of DDR3 ECC ram and a single Xeon E5630 (or 5620 I dont remember.) I have been trying to install Windows Server 2016 from my flash drive but the BIOS chooses to instead go through and try to boot from everything. It won't boot from anything. Then I heard I had to use the HP SmartStart disk to do anything. But there is only a short list of OSes supported by it. What can I do? I would prefer to Windows Server 2016 or Ubuntu Server 18.04, but can settle with others as long as it doesn't predate Windows 7 SP2. I tried installing FreeNAS and I got it to boot to the installer twice, but after installing it doesn't boot to the drive. I couldnt install Windows 7 Enterprise either, (using a disk.)

[logkiller]

First, let's start with this. It honestly would be better to install VMWare ESXi, KVM, or some other OS as a virtualization technology just in case you want to do anything else with the server. It can be installed on a flash drive / SD card mounted inside the server.

 

If the server isn't recognizing / booting from anything in the BIOS, what I'd try is connecting to iLO 2. iLO 2 can emulate virtual media from a ISO file on your local machine, and you can directly control via Java. I'd try to use iLO 2 (It might need to be reset, just Google on how to reset iLO 2, or try default credentials which is on a sticker / tag on the machine)

[Jay Deah]

im not sure that a hypervisor is "best" is completely depends on your use case. nothing wrong with running windows server/ubuntu on baremetal

 

so... SmartStart you do not NEED you only need to get it to boot from USB and that will be a setting SOMEWHERE. as mentioned,. ive never actually done it those way myself tho alwaysb used ILO. here is the latest ILO firmware (you can update it via the webpage you dont need to get into the OS)

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_163afbdf14ed40468da506424a

 

use virual console/virtualmedia to mount the ISO either integrated (use internet explorer) or java (use anything with java)

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

On 3/18/2019 at 6:05 AM, Jay Deah said:

im not sure that a hypervisor is "best" is completely depends on your use case. nothing wrong with running windows server/ubuntu on baremetal

 

so... SmartStart you do not NEED you only need to get it to boot from USB and that will be a setting SOMEWHERE. as mentioned,. ive never actually done it those way myself tho alwaysb used ILO. here is the latest ILO firmware (you can update it via the webpage you dont need to get into the OS)

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_163afbdf14ed40468da506424a

 

use virual console/virtualmedia to mount the ISO either integrated (use internet explorer) or java (use anything with java)

It does not boot from USB. The BIOS locks that all down. SmartStart is the only thing it will boot and show on screen

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

On 3/18/2019 at 1:39 AM, logkiller said:

First, let's start with this. It honestly would be better to install VMWare ESXi, KVM, or some other OS as a virtualization technology just in case you want to do anything else with the server. It can be installed on a flash drive / SD card mounted inside the server.

 

If the server isn't recognizing / booting from anything in the BIOS, what I'd try is connecting to iLO 2. iLO 2 can emulate virtual media from a ISO file on your local machine, and you can directly control via Java. I'd try to use iLO 2 (It might need to be reset, just Google on how to reset iLO 2, or try default credentials which is on a sticker / tag on the machine)

My understanding of servers almost doesnt exist. I got into the iLO 2 and updated it to the latest firmware. But I plan on using this server to host a Minecraft server or use it as a Movie NAS that people can stream from. How could i do that? I wanted to install Server 2016 or Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS to do so.

[leadeater]

On 3/28/2019 at 4:08 PM, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

It does not boot from USB. The BIOS locks that all down. SmartStart is the only thing it will boot and show on screen

First thing I would do is reset the server to factory defaults using the System Maintenance switches, set S6 to On then plug in and turn on the server and it'll erase all CMOS settings and clear NVRAM. http://images10.newegg.com/User-Manual/User_Manual_59-107-069.pdf (page 14)

 

After that you'll want to boot the server, then when it displays on the screen Press Any Key to Show Details (or w/e it actually says) do that then when the RAID card BIOS initializes there will be an on screen key prompt you need to press to get in to the RAID configuration. Once in there create a new Virtual Disk/Volume then, and you MUST do this, set this Volume as the boot volume for the RAID card.

 

Now boot the server again with a USB installer in it or using iLO virtual DVD drive and select manual boot options then select the installer boot device.

 

SmartStart only does what I described, it's not required just easier if you haven't done it before manually like this.