HP ProLiant ML350p Gen8 server keeps crashing (full speed fans)

fanhphp-proliantserver-crashesvmware-esxi

I have a problem with a HP ProLiant ML350p Gen8 server. Most of the time it runs fine, but after several weeks of uptime, the server crashes out of the blue. This happened about 5 times now. When it crashes, the OS (VMWare ESXi 5.5) stops working and the fans are running on full speed. Pressing the power button doesn't change anything then. I have to unplug and plug back in the power cable to get it to restart.
I've done a memtest without any errors. I also didn't find anything in the logs. Do you have any ideas how to solve this?

Best Answer

There are a couple of reasons this could be happening.

Firmware.
Updates.
possibly hardware.

Please see: http://meta.serverfault.com/q/6195/13325

If you're running Windows virtual machines configured with Intel e1000 virtual NICs, there is a chance that your VMware host is crashing. That's resolved with updates to ESXi and/or a change in your vNIC configuration.

If you're running old HP firmware, please update it.

Since you have HP hardware, please look in the ILO and the IML log to get a detailed reason for the crash. That will tell you if you're facing a hardware issue.

Memtest+ is useless on server equipment like this.

Related Solutions

HP ProLiant ML350 G6 powerup issue

This is an HP ProLiant ML350 G6 server. There is an Integrated Lights-Out (ILO) port on the system. This is the out-of-band management feature of HP ProLiant servers.

How long are you waiting after pressing power? The G6 and newer ProLiant systems take a long time to POST.
Is your ILO configured?
Can you log onto the ILO?
If so, check the ILO messages to see what they say about the server.
Try using the ILO's power management functions to turn the server on and off.

I don't think your APC UPS unit is a factor here. If these are simply reboots from Windows, why are you taking the system down? Those should be warm boots.

Either way, I suspect your KVM switch and/or keyboard/monitor combination. Have you tried a different keyboard/monitor?

See: HP ProLiant DL360 G7 hangs at "Power and Thermal Calibration" screen

If all else fails, it could be a firmware issue or you may need to contact HP support.

HP Smart Array P420i Array Management in ESXi 5.5

The tool you should be using today is hpssacli. The older hpacucli utility doesn't work on current-generation ProLiant servers.

In case you don't have hpssacli, the support download bundle for your server is here (if you're not already using the HP ESXi build).

Also, RAID6 for 4 disks doesn't make sense. Do RAID 1+0

~ # /opt/hp/hpacucli/bin/hpacucli
HP Array Configuration Utility CLI 9.40.12.0
Detecting Controllers...Done.
Type "help" for a list of supported commands.
Type "exit" to close the console.

=> ctrl all show config

Error: No controllers detected. 

=>

versus

~ # /opt/hp/hpssacli/bin/hpssacli
HP Smart Storage Administrator CLI 1.50.4.0
Detecting Controllers...Done.
Type "help" for a list of supported commands.
Type "exit" to close the console.

=> ctrl all show config

Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded)    (sn: 001438023DA3BF0)


   SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model SRCv8x6G) 380 (WWID: 5001438023DA3BFF)

=>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

HP ProLiant ML350 G6 powerup issue

HP Smart Array P420i Array Management in ESXi 5.5

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