Proliant DL360

System Setup

The Compaq ProLiant DL360 doesn't have a boot time BIOS configuration system. You can't hit F2 or F10 or DEL on boot to get to the BIOS. Instead, you have to use DOS/Windows programs for BIOS configuration. This isn't as bad as it seems. Compaq provides a "SmartStart" CD with such programs, and you can install a system partition which is almost indistinguishable from a normal BIOS configuration system (you hit F10 to boot to a friendly menu for all of the DOS utilities).

If you are starting with a used machine, you don't know what its many configuration options are set to. You can easily reset all settings. On the motherboard is a set of six switches labeled SW2 used for system maintenance. The lid of the DL360 case shows where these switches are and what they do. Specifically, switch 6 ("Maintenance") which is normally Off will reset system settings on boot when it is set to On. You may also need to make sure that switch 2 is Off since configuration is locked when it is On. Resetting system settings will ensure a sane starting point.

SmartStart CD

The ProLiant SmartStart CD is basically BIOS-config-on-a-CD. You definitely want a copy of it. Note that there are several different series of SmartStart for different servers. Since the ProLiant DL360 is an older machine, it requires SmartStart 5. If you try to boot to SmartStart 6 or 7, you will get an error message, since these CDs are intended for newer servers. As of March 2007, the latest version for the DL360 is SmartStart 5.50.

One way to find it is to search for "smartstart" or "smartstart 5.50" on hp.com. I found it by googling "Smartstart 5.5 Proliant iso".

Booting the SmartStart CD will yield CD-based utilites that will let you set up the server. If you select Update Utility Partition, it will partition the disk and copy the tools to one of the partitions. After that you can run the utilites at boot time by pressing F10 when prompted. I recommend going this way as it means you will no longer require the CD if you need to check or change settings.

Installing OSs

The big thing to remember is that since the "Setup" utilities run from the hard disk, you can't put your OS boot code in the MBR. You have to put it in the boot partition for that OS.

Your bootloader (e.g. Grub or Lilo) should NOT be installed to the MBR if you installed the System Partition. Instead, it should be installed to the boot partition. For example, install Grub to (hd0,0) instead of (hd0). If you overwrite the MBR, you won't be able to hit F10 for system configuration.

Maintenance Manual

The Maintenance Manual is attached to this page, athough it isn't really much use. It describes replacing components.

Source

This page is 95% based on Andrew McNabb's page on the DL360.