Quick Format Fails & regular format is slower than slugs

Corky

hardware:
HP BL465p blade dual AMD processors, 16GB memory
QLH2462 HBA (firmware 1.26 & Adapter settings all according to Xiotech
support).
Xiotech 3000s 10GB virtual disk
Cisco 9509 MDS fabric

Software:
Windows 2003 R2 64-bit
STOR Miniport 9.1.4.15 64-bit version


Issue:
Ok...I'm trying to install windows 2003 to boot from SAN...just like all the
other servers and blades in our enterprise.
I put in the CD and boot the blade...the server sees the SAN and it's
attached vDisk and begins the installation process.

When I get to the point where it asks for the floppy for the QLogic the
first time, no issue. the system reads the floppy and continues along the
install process.

I get to the point where it's going to format the 10G disk & I've done both
of the following:
1. selected the Quick Format (never had an issue with this on the other 30+
server installs we've done previously) and it gets to 20%, hangs & then fails
out with the error message saying that it can't complete the format process
because the disk is bad.

2. selected the normal format on a subsequent installation attempt & it's
formatting at about 1GB / hr. Previously, i've seen these formats happen
within 5 minutes for 10G.

3. using another server, i was able to create an NTFS formatted 10G disk
and then assign it as LUN0 to the server I'm trying to install on. Quick
format works just fine here with the same STORport driver. When I get to the
installation phase, the installation program cannot see my floppy disk
attached to the server or via any other method...therefore, the installation
can't see the disk because it can't use the embedded qlogic driver on the
original installation media.

I've contacted Xiotech regarding this issue & they're pointing that it's an
OS issue. Could it be the version of windows 2003 i'm installing with? Any
thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I ultimately only need to install 3
times, then I can clone the OS for all the other blades. I'm just trying to
avoid over 30 hours of formatting when it should only take about 3 minutes.

thanks,
Corky

Dave Patrick

Did you F6? (at setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent
drive controller detection, and select S to specify additional drivers.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Corky" wrote:
> hardware:
> HP BL465p blade dual AMD processors, 16GB memory
> QLH2462 HBA (firmware 1.26 & Adapter settings all according to Xiotech
> support).
> Xiotech 3000s 10GB virtual disk
> Cisco 9509 MDS fabric
>
> Software:
> Windows 2003 R2 64-bit
> STOR Miniport 9.1.4.15 64-bit version
>
>
> Issue:
> Ok...I'm trying to install windows 2003 to boot from SAN...just like all
> the
> other servers and blades in our enterprise.
> I put in the CD and boot the blade...the server sees the SAN and it's
> attached vDisk and begins the installation process.
>
> When I get to the point where it asks for the floppy for the QLogic the
> first time, no issue. the system reads the floppy and continues along the
> install process.
>
> I get to the point where it's going to format the 10G disk & I've done
> both
> of the following:
> 1. selected the Quick Format (never had an issue with this on the other
> 30+
> server installs we've done previously) and it gets to 20%, hangs & then
> fails
> out with the error message saying that it can't complete the format
> process
> because the disk is bad.
>
> 2. selected the normal format on a subsequent installation attempt & it's
> formatting at about 1GB / hr. Previously, i've seen these formats happen
> within 5 minutes for 10G.
>
> 3. using another server, i was able to create an NTFS formatted 10G disk
> and then assign it as LUN0 to the server I'm trying to install on. Quick
> format works just fine here with the same STORport driver. When I get to
> the
> installation phase, the installation program cannot see my floppy disk
> attached to the server or via any other method...therefore, the
> installation
> can't see the disk because it can't use the embedded qlogic driver on the
> original installation media.
>
> I've contacted Xiotech regarding this issue & they're pointing that it's
> an
> OS issue. Could it be the version of windows 2003 i'm installing with?
> Any
> thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I ultimately only need to install
> 3
> times, then I can clone the OS for all the other blades. I'm just trying
> to
> avoid over 30 hours of formatting when it should only take about 3
> minutes.
>
> thanks,
> Corky

Corky

yes...the only way to get windows installer to see the QLH2462 is to use the
floppy...which also stinks because you can't get the installer to see
anything BUT a floppy. We went in circles trying to get it to see a USB Key,
CD with the driver burned on it etc.

Anyway, the issue was resolved and it will sound very simple, but the
circumstances in which the hardware troubleshooting was taking place didn't
lend itself to the solution.
The root problem was a bad fiber cable. The reason it's not as simple as it
sounds is that the server could see the SAN and the installer would also see
the SAN, but you couldn't do anything with the disk. Also, throwing garbage
into the process was that when I changed out the 1st fiber cable, the 2nd one
must've been bad too b/c I got the same behaviour. Could see the SAN but
couldn't do anything with the disk. Why this is unusual is that fiber will
either work or it won't...there's no 1/2 way operation. So, somehow, the
server was able to fool us into thinking that all was fine with SAN
connectivity, but in fact, when we went and bought a brand new fiber cable &
put it in...then all worked perfectly. Go figure.

"Dave Patrick" wrote:

> Did you F6? (at setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent
> drive controller detection, and select S to specify additional drivers.
>
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
> Microsoft Certified Professional
> Microsoft MVP [Windows]
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
>
> "Corky" wrote:
> > hardware:
> > HP BL465p blade dual AMD processors, 16GB memory
> > QLH2462 HBA (firmware 1.26 & Adapter settings all according to Xiotech
> > support).
> > Xiotech 3000s 10GB virtual disk
> > Cisco 9509 MDS fabric
> >
> > Software:
> > Windows 2003 R2 64-bit
> > STOR Miniport 9.1.4.15 64-bit version
> >
> >
> > Issue:
> > Ok...I'm trying to install windows 2003 to boot from SAN...just like all
> > the
> > other servers and blades in our enterprise.
> > I put in the CD and boot the blade...the server sees the SAN and it's
> > attached vDisk and begins the installation process.
> >
> > When I get to the point where it asks for the floppy for the QLogic the
> > first time, no issue. the system reads the floppy and continues along the
> > install process.
> >
> > I get to the point where it's going to format the 10G disk & I've done
> > both
> > of the following:
> > 1. selected the Quick Format (never had an issue with this on the other
> > 30+
> > server installs we've done previously) and it gets to 20%, hangs & then
> > fails
> > out with the error message saying that it can't complete the format
> > process
> > because the disk is bad.
> >
> > 2. selected the normal format on a subsequent installation attempt & it's
> > formatting at about 1GB / hr. Previously, i've seen these formats happen
> > within 5 minutes for 10G.
> >
> > 3. using another server, i was able to create an NTFS formatted 10G disk
> > and then assign it as LUN0 to the server I'm trying to install on. Quick
> > format works just fine here with the same STORport driver. When I get to
> > the
> > installation phase, the installation program cannot see my floppy disk
> > attached to the server or via any other method...therefore, the
> > installation
> > can't see the disk because it can't use the embedded qlogic driver on the
> > original installation media.
> >
> > I've contacted Xiotech regarding this issue & they're pointing that it's
> > an
> > OS issue. Could it be the version of windows 2003 i'm installing with?
> > Any
> > thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I ultimately only need to install
> > 3
> > times, then I can clone the OS for all the other blades. I'm just trying
> > to
> > avoid over 30 hours of formatting when it should only take about 3
> > minutes.
> >
> > thanks,
> > Corky
>

Dave Patrick

May have been fractured at one end allowing data to pass in one direction.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Corky" wrote:
> yes...the only way to get windows installer to see the QLH2462 is to use
> the
> floppy...which also stinks because you can't get the installer to see
> anything BUT a floppy. We went in circles trying to get it to see a USB
> Key,
> CD with the driver burned on it etc.
>
> Anyway, the issue was resolved and it will sound very simple, but the
> circumstances in which the hardware troubleshooting was taking place
> didn't
> lend itself to the solution.
> The root problem was a bad fiber cable. The reason it's not as simple as
> it
> sounds is that the server could see the SAN and the installer would also
> see
> the SAN, but you couldn't do anything with the disk. Also, throwing
> garbage
> into the process was that when I changed out the 1st fiber cable, the 2nd
> one
> must've been bad too b/c I got the same behaviour. Could see the SAN but
> couldn't do anything with the disk. Why this is unusual is that fiber
> will
> either work or it won't...there's no 1/2 way operation. So, somehow, the
> server was able to fool us into thinking that all was fine with SAN
> connectivity, but in fact, when we went and bought a brand new fiber cable
> &
> put it in...then all worked perfectly. Go figure.