Hp Proliant Dl180 G5 Server Drivers Download

• View full HP ProLiant DL180 G5 specs on CNET. Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. Drivers & Utilities.
• Installing Windows on HP Proliant Servers. Of our servers are HP Proliant DL360 G6, DL380 G5 and. To manually download and install Windows drivers for.

HP ProLiant servers and blades are a mainstay in the data center. The market leader for some years with good reason, ProLiant technology represents a remarkably stable continuum of server hardware management tools. HP SmartStart CDs and DVDs have been used countless times since Compaq ProLiant days to accelerate and standardize server deployments by integrating the right HP drivers and utilities into the OS installation process.

No SmartStart for HP Gen8 ProLiant, Windows Server 2012

A hardware migration to the Gen8 ProLiant platform prompted HP to end the SmartStart legacy with version 8.70b (12/2011) being the last media version. HP stated that SmartStart will not be updated beyond version 8.70. SmartStart will still be available on the web for supported ProLiant G7 and earlier servers through their supported end of life. Since Windows Server 2012 was not an operating system choice in SmartStart 8.70, it won't be possible to use SmartStart to install Windows Server 2012.

The vast majority of our servers are HP Proliant DL360 G6, DL380 G5 and. Never had to manually download and install Windows drivers for. DL180, DL360, DL380. Just click on the server to obtain driver downloads, certification and. DL180 G5: DL180 G6: DL185 G5. For the ProLiant 100 Series Servers. Download the. Welcome to HP's interactive Red Hat Support and Certification webpage for ProLiant Servers. Just click on the server to obtain driver downloads, certification and. Download the latest drivers for your HP ProLiant DL180 G5 to keep your Computer up-to-date.

New Gen8 and later ProLiant servers use a different technique for assisted installation. There is no media kit included with ProLiant Gen8 products. Intelligent Provisioning replaces SmartStart CDs for ProLiant Gen8 servers. The software that came on SmartStart media is now embedded on a flash chip on ProLiant Gen8 servers and Gen8 server blades. The pre-loaded flash chip is bootable when a user presses the F10 key during server boot (POST). The server will then boot to the pre-loaded flash chip and show the Intelligent Provisioning software.

New way to provision HP ProLiant: Smart Update Manager (HP-SUM)

For everyone that does not have ProLiant Gen8 servers, use the Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) at http://www.hp.com/go/spp to get firmware and software updates, since only Gen8 can use Intelligent Provisioning. You will also need to use the SPP if you are installing Windows Server 2012 on any HP hardware prior to Gen8. There is also a Windows Server 2012 Supplement for Service Pack for ProLiant that includes drivers and software for all ProLiant servers.

A common scenario is that you will install Windows Server 2012 on a pre-Gen8 ProLiant manually, that is, without HP software-assisted installation. Then afterwards you will run the SPP and/or Windows Server 2012 Supplement to install the HP hardware integration features. HP published a 13-page Technical white paper in September 2012 on Windows Server 2012 implementation recommendations, which makes clear that HP supports Windows Server 2012 installation on G7 and Gen8 ProLiant hardware, and also advises which drivers to use and where they are located (SPP or Supplement). Not all ProLiant hardware previous to G7 and Gen8 may be supported by HP drivers and software on Windows Server 2012.

Figure A shows the HP Smart Update Manager (HP-SUM) interface running on a freshly installed Windows Server 2012 computer, an older ProLiant G5. HP-SUM will detect the latest editions of the appropriate software and drivers and show whether they are available on the DVD, to download, or in a local repository. This older G5 ended having no driver support for the HP management module, but all other drivers and software installed and worked as expected.

Figure A

HP Smart Update Manager (SUM) locates the latest versions of Windows Server 2012 drivers. (Click to enlarge)

To run HP-SUM, download the SPP software at hp.com; the current release at this writing is 2012.08. Expand the software distribution, locate and run the E:hpswpackageshpsum.exe file (where E: represents the drive letter the virtual SPP software DVD is mounted to). If you will be installing HP Agents, it is recommended that you pre-install the SNMP Service feature on Windows Server 2012. The HP Systems Insight Homepage on the computer will require SNMP to render any data.The first thing HP-SUM will do is prompt you to connect over the Internet to ftp.hp.com for the latest updates. If you have established an on-site HP software repository, you can connect to that rather than, or in addition to, using the Internet. Figure B shows the download of components from HP.com in progress. The component download and the software install are two independent steps, and there is an ability to add other ProLiant to a list of servers to be updated. This allows you to download the software on one ProLiant and install it on multiple other ProLiants at the same time.

Figure B

HP Smart Update Manager (SUM) downloading updated drivers from HP.

Install and configure with HP Tools

You will need to push the Enter Credentials button to specify a username/password—or to use the currently logged on user—for the install work. After doing a self-discovery on the local server and a discovery of any other network servers you have added to the list, HP-SUM will display any failed dependencies needed to fix to install the updates. A 'Select bundles' option makes it easy to see all the software available and selected for installation. After installation and reboots, the handy HP tools like HP Array Configuration Utility (ACU) and Integrated Lights Out (ILO) configuration tool are ready to use. Access HP tools from the Windows Start screen shown in Figure C.

I have a PXE server for deploying Windows XP and Windows 7 to workstations.

The process is as follows:

1. Boot the workstation from the NIC.
2. Workstation sends a DHCP request.
3. DHCP server responds with an IP address and the location of the PXE server.
4. Workstation downloads WinPE image file from PXE server via TFTP
5. Workstation stores WinPE image file in memory and executes it.
6. Once booted into WinPE, I connect to a network share to gain access to either the Windows XP or Windows 7 installation files.
7. A custom script is launched to guide you through the process of formatting and partitioning the hard drive(s) (using DISKPART and FORMAT).
8. Another custom script asks for details such as the hostname to assign to the workstation. The answers provided are used to build an unattended answer file (SIF [Setup Information File] for WinXP and XML for Win7).
9. The Windows setup EXE is launched, passing the unattended answer file to it as a parameter.

The Windows XP and Windows 7 installation sources have been customised to include the drivers for our Dell workstations. They also run a number of scripts upon first booting up to install software packages.

This process works very well for our workstations and I would now like to use it for building our servers too. The vast majority of our servers are HP Proliant DL360 G6, DL380 G5 and DL380 G6. They’re running Windows Server 2003 (various editions) or 2008 (various editions).

To date, we have always built the HP Proliant servers using the SmartStart CD provided. SmartStart does three useful things for us:

Hp Proliant Dl180 G5 Server

1. Setup RAID with HP Array Configuration Utility (ACU).
2. Installs and configures SNMP
3. Installs various HP Tools for Windows (HP Array Configuration Utility, HP Array Diagnostic Utility, HP Proliant Integrated Management Log Viewer, etc)

Using SmartStart I have never had to manually download and install Windows drivers for network, sound, video, etc. I'm not sure if this is because SmartStart copies drivers from the CD during setup, or whether Windows just has the drivers natively in its driver CAB.

Hp Proliant Dl180 G6

If I abandon the SmartStart CD in favour of my PXE server I would have to do the following:

• As I wont have access to ACU, I'll configure the RAID (before booting to the PXE server) by pressing F8 (during the boot process) to access Option ROM Configuration for Arrays (ORCA).
• Installation of SNMP and the HP Tools will have to be installed once the Windows installation is complete using the Proliant Support Pack.

Is this method OK? Is there anything that the SmartStart CD does that I'll be unable to do by other means? Are there any disadvantages to not using the SmartStart CD?

Many thanks.

UPDATE 05/01/12

I’ve been reading through the SmartStart Scripting Toolkit documentation.

The scripting toolkit contains command line tools which work within WinPE and can such things as configure BIOS settings, configure an array and setup ILO.

I’m personally not too bothered about configuring BIOS settings as I rarely deviate from the defaults (unless the server is to be a Hyper-V host).

I’m not too fussed about being able to configure the array from within WinPE, as I’m happy to just press F8 and use Option ROM Configuration for Arrays (ORCA). Although, if it’s easy enough to do, I will explore this further, as it saves time if everything can be configured from within WinPE.

One of the nice features all the tools possess is that you can pass input files to them. EG. Configure one server to your requirements, capture its configuration to a file (using the appropriate tool), you can then use the tool on other servers passing the input file with the captured configuration.

Array controller drivers appear to be included with the toolkit along with example of how to incorporate them within a WinPE build.

I suppose WinPE won’t be able to see logical volumes (I.E 2x physical disks in a RAID 1 configuration) without the array controller drivers?

I mentioned in my post that SmartStart normally installs a bunch of Windows HP tools for you. I’ve had a look today, and if you run the SmartStart CD from within Windows all the tools can be installed. Therefore I can do this after the Windows installation is complete.

The SmartStart CD appears to contain a lot Windows drivers. I can customise my Windows 2008 source to incorporate these drivers.

However, I understand that incorporating an array controller driver is a little different to most drivers. I believe that you have to provide the driver during the very early stages of the Windows setup. I’m working through the Scripting Toolkit documentation to try and work this out...

4 Answers

You should use HP's solution named Rapid Deployment Pack which is part of HP Insight Control

It's exact purpose is deploying various OS to HP Proliant servers.

We've had ZERO luck doing this without the SmartStart disk. Every time we try it, the server eventually blue screens. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to investigate the actual cause. We use DL180, DL360, DL380, and various BLXXX flavors (mostly G5 and G6).

Doesn't SmartStart have an option to essentially deploy an image you can use via PXE to boot? I know you can use Windows Deployment and Ghost together (there is even an MSDN article on it) so I would be surprised if HP did not offer a way to do this too.

Edit: SmartStart Scripting toolkit (http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/toolkit/questionsanswers.html) is what I was thinking of.

Top__HatTop__Hat

we have done this many times ... you can look at HP RDP (HP remote deployement) wich come with many images to remote install via (PXE) i do not remember all the details .. but i know it s doable .. you can take the images from RDP and follow the tasks they do before/after the install image the end system is exactly the same as if you ve done the installation with smartstart ps. i ve found the smartstart scripting toolkit document hard to follow .. copying the images and install setps from HP RDP was easier for me ..good luck

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