Need advise on updating HP Proliant Gen7 and earler Bios, Firmware and ILO

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warloxian

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Jun 26, 2021
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I don't like asking for help, that's why oi have 100 tabs open on Firefox right now , but the answer evades me. I have 4 Proxmox server at this time. One is a Proliant DL380 Gen7. I have been all over HP's web site (what a disaster that seems to be) and I still am not sure how to update this system. I am not sure if I have to do the updates in increments or will the latest updates just work? When I get on HP's site to try and find the right software I seem to get different answers. I am new to servers and I apologize if I am posting this in the wrong Forum? If anyone can take me by the hand, like a small child, and lead me through the update process , I will be forever grateful and I promise that I will return the knowledge I obtain to help other down the road. 6 months ago I had no clue how to use Linux, I've broken more Linux installs then I care to admit, I have had hundreds of tabs open on Firefox trying to learn everything I can so I can learn some ethical hacking skills, I have learned what not to do. Now after 6 months of learning myself and I am comfortable with my Linux knowledge I decided it was time to move onto a home lab. Servers are a completely different ball game and I would love to swallow my pride and take some help from anyone. And if I've posted in wrong forum then I would appreciate a link to the right forum. I am 55 years old and I am commited to learning as much as possible and I will spend days or weeks trying to figure things out , but the severs are a little over my head, but I guarantee in 6 months I will have a better grip on the servers as well
 
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I have been all over HP's web site (what a disaster that seems to be) and I still am not sure how to update this system. I am not sure if I have to do the updates in increments or will the latest updates just work?
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What updates do you mean exactly? Drivers, firmware, Proxmox VE?
 
According to the HPE-website you are absolutely right, it's a real PITA.

Regarding your question. You are probably looking for "HP SERVICE PACK (SPP) FOR PROLIANT SERVERS". This an ISO with all the drivers for your system. You can use this ISO to boot from and use an automated install. Downside is that these use to be freely available for download but nowadays you need to register to download.
 
Yes SPP are what I am after. I figured out how to update ILO3 and it's current now. The SPP is a little confusing as I am unable to tell if Service pack updates need done in increments or if I can just use the latest? I keep finding references to an HP program that helps to ID the proper software and almost automate the update, but I am unable to locate this software at all? Also, in some places it appears SPP are free and in othe rplaces it seems I have to pay? I did contact HP support to see about purchasing a contract of some type for my older servers. After 78 minutes with their support , they transferred me to their "PARTS DEPT" that seems to be what foreign customer support agents do these days when they are clueless about the question your asking. I was offering to spend money with the sales department and they send me to parts? Small fish in big pond kind of feeling I get. I'm ready to build a hacking lab and I want every potential vuln closed on my servers before I proceed. If anyone knows where I can find and download the package SUM for dl380g7 I'd be forever grateful. THX Warlox
 
The good news is that HPE upstreams their kernel drivers for Debian, Ubuntu, etc. The bad news is the proprietary support is nearly all for RHEL and Suse. You can find the tools, including SUM, here: http://downloads.linux.hpe.com/

While G7 firmware requires an access token, you can go to the G10 page and generate a token that will work for G7 <wink>. But, you will find only RHEL/Suse packages. You are better served by getting the ISO to boot and install updates.

I only use the MCP repo for install/updates to the storage controller utility 'ssacli', but they do have a couple of other packages that may interest you.
 
May I ask, since I am as newbie as you can probably get, can I install a VM for a different Linux server and try to update through the VM? And I haven't got anything important on my servers yet, Could I just install a different Linux server OS, update all my BIOS and then reinstall Proxmox as a single boot OS? I guess the ILO is what confuses me. It has it's own operating system, from what I understand, seems like I could update through ILO or Is the BIOS on a server that tightly incorporated with the OS of the system , where I can't use one OS to update and then install another to run the system?
 
Oh, By the way. I appreciate that your willing to spend your valuable time helping me. I was about to give up on Linux but I pressed through and now I am glad I did. I am at the same point on the servers. I am a puzzle solver and I know that when your at your wits end on a puzzle , that's when your closest to your answer. My answer on the servers was to ASK FOR HELP!!!!
 
Easiest way to update is to get the ISO-file with the (latest) firmware. You can boot from that and install without the need to install an OS. Sure there are other (more difficult/time consuming) ways, but booting the ISO is the easiest. Do you have the ISO already?
 
birdy said:
Easiest way to update is to get the ISO-file with the (latest) firmware. You can boot from that and install without the need to install an OS. Sure there are other (more difficult/time consuming) ways, but booting the ISO is the easiest. Do you have the ISO already?
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No I dont have the ISO. I have tried to navigate the HP website to find the proper ISO but I have found that I get different ISO's when I log into my HP account (non paid) and I am not 100% sure I have the correct one. I have offered to spend money with HP for a contract so I can meet the "ENTITLEMENT" , but their support agents lack common comprehension and the sales dept. keeps sending me to the parts department. Then they say its impossible for m to purchase a contract with them because my equipment is out of warranty, by several years if not decades
 
birdy said:
Easiest way to update is to get the ISO-file with the (latest) firmware. You can boot from that and install without the need to install an OS. Sure there are other (more difficult/time consuming) ways, but booting the ISO is the easiest. Do you have the ISO already?
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I think I have the right ISO now. It says it's for gen 7.1 , mines gen7 but It appears it will work from my understanding.
 
ALl three of my regular servers are hand me downs from local IT management stores. I plan on bringing some troubled teens in and start teaching them Linux, VM's and such, and once I have secured some trust with them I plan to teach them ethical hacking. I won't charge a dime for this. It's just my way of trying to make amends for the sins of my past. I was once a troubled teen and there were a few people that refused to give up on me. If I didn't have those people in my life I'd be in prison or DEAD!!! that's just the facts. The reason I bring this up is because I want you all to know that every single piece of advise I get from you all , is helping more then just me. I'll start looking for some Dell servers. I have one more question but I'll post it somewhere else. Thnaks again. Your time is more valauable to me then I could ever repay
 
warloxian said:
I think I have the right ISO now. It says it's for gen 7.1 , mines gen7 but It appears it will work from my understanding.
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I'm pretty sure that's the right one.

Now use iLO to update the server:
- connect to the server with iLO (server switched off!)
- open remote console
- attach your ISO-file to the server with iLO
- boot the server
- wait for the option to press F11 (bootmenu) on your screen
- the screen will show you a few boot options, one of them is to boot the ISO via iLO
- boot the ISO
- choose automatic install
- wait....
- reboot server normally and your done
 
I have problems with remote console as well. Thta's also been one of my frustrations. I have generated the public and private keys but I can't get ILO to accept them. This is the log I get when trying to run from a win10 computer

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
Windows : 10.0.19043.0 (Win32NT)
Common Language Runtime : 4.0.30319.42000
System.Deployment.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
clr.dll : 4.8.4390.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfdll.dll : 4.8.4270.0 built by: NET48REL1LAST_C
dfshim.dll : 10.0.19041.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

SOURCES
Deployment url : file:///C:/Users/alexa/Downloads/IRC(5).application

IDENTITIES
Deployment Identity : IRC.application, Version=1.4.0.2092, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=81a64c72fbbf0350, processorArchitecture=msil

APPLICATION SUMMARY
* Online only application.
* Trust url parameter is set.
ERROR SUMMARY
Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
* Activation of C:\Users\alexa\Downloads\IRC(5).application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ Deployment and application do not have matching security zones.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
* [7/11/2021 12:06:46 PM] : Activation of C:\Users\alexa\Downloads\IRC(5).application has started.
* [7/11/2021 12:06:47 PM] : Processing of deployment manifest has successfully completed.
* [7/11/2021 12:06:47 PM] : Installation of the application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [7/11/2021 12:06:47 PM] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (Zone)
- Deployment and application do not have matching security zones.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadApplicationManifest(AssemblyManifest deploymentManifest, String targetDir, Uri deploymentUri, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, Uri& appSourceUri, String& appManifestPath)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.DownloadApplication(SubscriptionState subState, ActivationDescription actDesc, Int64 transactionId, TempDirectory& downloadTemp)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.InstallApplication(SubscriptionState& subState, ActivationDescription actDesc)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
No transaction information is available
When I try JAVA I get this error "2021/07/11 12:10:35.727368 unable to run java application: found <applet-desc> tag but applets are not supported"

And I get a TLS connection error with android app?

I did generate a public and private key. I thought I changed it to the right PEM encoded DSA public key but I wasn't fully comprehending the formatting and may have done something wrong?

When I run the same items from Parrot security OS I get similar results
 
Sorry, can't help you with that, never had een issue with iLO certificates.

Maybe try to reset to "Factory Defaults" (in BIOS) and start from scratch. Also you could write the ISO to a USB-stick (with Balena Etcher/Rufus/etc) and boot from that.
 
birdy said:
Sorry, can't help you with that, never had een issue with iLO certificates.

Maybe try to reset to "Factory Defaults" (in BIOS) and start from scratch. Also you could write the ISO to a USB-stick (with Balena Etcher/Rufus/etc) and boot from that.
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I appreciate that. I did write the USB stick with etcher , etcher warned me that the ISO didn't contain a bootable partition. I tried multiple methods to boot it, biut no success. I do not have anything important on my servers yet. I think I am going to reinstall Proxmox to 7.0. I will go back into HP forums and look for my other answers there. You guys are very knowledgeable and I will be leaning on you for a couple of months. Once my learning curve has matured I will reciprocate !!!!
 
ILO3 have support for weak certificates deprecated by most of browsers, java and NET. If You want run remote console use Internet Explorer. I've two DL380, one G6 and one G7. Both works with Proxmox 6.4 from internal SD. Flashing firmwares works online from Proxmox. You must download rpms from HP, unpack them and then run executables from console. Sometimes You need to use external flashing tool. There is HP debian repository. If You want, I can check serwer for what firmware versions it's running.
 
ryba84 said:
ILO3 have support for weak certificates deprecated by most of browsers, java and NET. If You want run remote console use Internet Explorer. I've two DL380, one G6 and one G7. Both works with Proxmox 6.4 from internal SD. Flashing firmwares works online from Proxmox. You must download rpms from HP, unpack them and then run executables from console. Sometimes You need to use external flashing tool. There is HP debian repository. If You want, I can check serwer for what firmware versions it's running.
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Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. I was attempting to install pfsense yesterday. I was following a tutorial. When I added my NIC as PCI device, as per the tutorial, I lost connection with my server, my cluster lost communication with this node. I had to get the keyboard and monitor out and hook up to the server. Proxmox is loaded and working in the server, but it appears I have lost my NIC. I manually deleted the VM, which had not even been started up yet, and my NIC still doesnt seem to be working. The lighting scheme at the NIC ports seem to be indicating that my server is communicating on my LAN but I cant find it? From y research, the bios I have has several problems thatneed patched with a servivce pack, Now I have months of work into A SERVER i CANT USE. I have found that all my VM's have been migrated when this server failed, so I had something set up correctly. I am at my wits end and I am really pondering scrapping the Hp servers and getting a couple more Dell R710 servers to match the one I have in my cluster. I have a hillbilly setup as my cluster and I am running several different systems , including two PC's. I just loose all that ram and the CPU's if I let this stay in this state. I like my VM's to have plenty of resources to operate.
 
warloxian said:
Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. I was attempting to install pfsense yesterday. I was following a tutorial. When I added my NIC as PCI device, as per the tutorial, I lost connection with my server, my cluster lost communication with this node. I had to get the keyboard and monitor out and hook up to the server. Proxmox is loaded and working in the server, but it appears I have lost my NIC. I manually deleted the VM, which had not even been started up yet, and my NIC still doesnt seem to be working. The lighting scheme at the NIC ports seem to be indicating that my server is communicating on my LAN but I cant find it? From y research, the bios I have has several problems thatneed patched with a servivce pack, Now I have months of work into A SERVER i CANT USE. I have found that all my VM's have been migrated when this server failed, so I had something set up correctly. I am at my wits end and I am really pondering scrapping the Hp servers and getting a couple more Dell R710 servers to match the one I have in my cluster. I have a hillbilly setup as my cluster and I am running several different systems , including two PC's. I just loose all that ram and the CPU's if I let this stay in this state. I like my VM's to have plenty of resources to operate.
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I've PM'd you
 
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