HP DL360 Gen9 - Server not booting

[CHiLL]

One of our two ESXi hosts is not booting from the HP miro-SD card and I'm struggling to fix the issue. Once the server boots up, it starts to PXE boot because there are no other boot devices found (boot order is; SD Card > USB > PXE).

 

ILO4 is reporting the following error:

Controller firmware revision 2.10.00 NAND read failure

 

My Google-fu lead me to three main routes; format the SD card from within ILO4, replace the SD card then format it from within ILO4 and update the ILO4 firmware.

 

I have tried first two, but I'm still getting the same issue. The latter was already done earlier this year. We're on ILO4 2.80, which is the latest firmware available from HP.

 

I'm currently at a loss and our VMs have failed over to the single host (which isn't ideal!).

 

What a way to start the new term. Does anyone have any ideas?

Edited September 5, 2022 by CHiLL

[3s-gtech]

The SD card has died. Even though they don’t write much, the cards do eventually brick - I’ve replaced the memory stick in mine a couple of times. Pain, but the alternative is an SSD hanging off the USB port.

[CrootUK]

We had this, ESXI no longer supports SD cards either, had to put HDDs in and reinstall esxi on both hosts over the last year.

[CHiLL]

Thanks both. Our DL360 G9 does have front SATA bays, so I could stick an SSD in there. One issue I forsee is that it doesn't have actual drive sleds, it's just a slot cover...so the drive wouldn't be supported correctly and hanging off the SATA port.

 

We actually have an extended warranty on this server, so we've raised it with an issue with them. They've advised it needs a mainboard swap (which will include downtime...which is fine, since it's already down). I'm just waiting for them to arrange a time to come and swap it for us.