HP ML10v2 B120i RAID Setup

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In this guide we're going to cover configuring RAID and installing Server 2012 R2 on an ML10v2 server.

 

You're going to need 5 things to do this.

• USB's - working with DVD's or iLo to mount drives will be a pain as you need additional drivers.
• Offline HP Smart Storage Administrator (HP SSA) - This is used to access the configuration menu for the B120i RAID controller built into the board. This is roughly 1GB and will take a while to download due to the host.
• HP USB Key Utility For Windows - This tool is used to burn the above ISO. You can't easily use 3rd party software like Rufus to burn the ISO to disk.
• HP Smart Array B120i Drivers for Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2 - You will need these when installing Windows and selecting the installation destination.
• Your Server 2012 R2 ISO.

 

1. Start the above downloads - as mentioned, the SSA can take a while to download.
2. Use the HP USB utility to burn SSA to a bootable image and boot into it. You can't use 3rd party applications to do this.
3. Use the SSA to construct your RAID arrays - don't forget to chose your boot drives here
   1. You'll want to make sure that logical disk 1/0 is what you want to use as a boot disk before you exit.
4. Burn your Windows ISO to disk. On this USB, extract to a folder the B120i drivers: to be used later.
5. Reboot the machine onto the Windows ISO
6. Go through the Windows setup - don't be alarmed if the system doesn't show any drives to boot from. Load the driver from the folder on the USB and you'll see your drives.

 

• If when you attempt to boot to Windows, you get a message saying that no operating system could be found on the USB, hit F11 when prompted during POST. This will allow you to select the boot media. If you've correctly hit F11 the POST will continue however the box at the bottom will become white indicating you've selected to progress to the boot menu. Hit 3 to then select USB boot.
• If you still have issues booting to Windows from USB, use the rear USB ports.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Windspeed36
Updated driver link