Please help, hopefully simple problem with kvm not starting w/CDROM drive on DL380 G6

[Allen15]

Hello. I'm being stymied by my latest attempt to get Proxmox VE 3.0 working as a replacement for a very stable and reliable production server runnng Proxmox VE 1.5 or so. I haven't yet begun trying to do any migration of anything, because I'm getting stuck on the initial installation, where I've started off with a new server hardware platform (not bleeding edge, but a new-in-box HP Proliant DL380 G6, with a pair of quad-core L5520 Xeons & 32 Gb of RAM, which should be more than plenty of power to get this up and running for the small jobs it is slated for.

HP Proliant DL 380 G6 System specs:
CPUs: (2) Xeon L5520 quad-core
RAM: 32 Gb ECC
Bios: P62 dated 5/5/2011 (latest that HP shows for this model)
IPMI: Up & running ILO2, and updated to latest firmware also
Storage: (4) 600 Gb 10K SAS HP-branded 2.5" drives in a RAID5 configuration and connected to the embedded
HP SmartArray P410i.
Optical drive: Generic slimline DVD-ROM drive, SATA.

The problem is that while I can install Proxmox VE 3.0 with either CD or USB flash drive, once it is installed, nothing seems to be able to use the DVD-ROM drive thereafter, and ANY KVM I create that has a CDROM drive won't start as long as the drive is part of the configuration, unless I tell it that there is no media.

I've checked the CMOS settings, and all the virtualization options are enabled, and have been from the start.

The HP DL380 G6, while being a slightly older generation machine, isn't so outdated as to be useless, is it? It still has another year left on the original HP warranty, and literally was new when I opened it, with all the discs & paperwork one would expect with a new server.

What am I missing? The optical drive works fine until I reboot into Proxmox VE 3.0, & these servers are almost as common as insects, so surely someone has already solved this problem before me...

I'm currently typing on this system with it booted off of an Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 USB drive in trial mode, and everything else I've tried to run or install on this hardware hasn't shown any problems that I've been able to notice.

I'm off to try Proxmox 2.3, for now, as I don't expect an immediate response, and I must keep moving forward with this project. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to do a direct install of Windows Server on it, an worry about the other server replacements another time, but if someone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it, as I can revisit this another time, and migrate the direct install to a VE later, if I have to. Thanks.

Edit: I can mount, read, and umount the optical drive ok, from this live-usb boot, so I know the hardware is working well enough to read (I even installed a few times from booting from it too). What should I look at next?

 

[Allen15]

Re: Please help, hopefully simple problem with kvm not starting w/CDROM drive on DL38

As an update, going to Proxmox 2.3 just worked, with no alarms, no warnings, it just did what I told it to do, and with no complaints... It's installing Windows Server on the first VM right now, as I type this, so there must be something with 3.0 that this hardware is having issue with, and if there are improvements in 3.0 that may be desired, I guess I have to figure out what the conflict(s) are at some point.

If anyone else finds out before I do, please share? I'll post back if/when I find anything that may shed light on this also.

 

[kotakomputer]

Re: Please help, hopefully simple problem with kvm not starting w/CDROM drive on DL38

Nice share, would you like to upgrade 2.3 to 3.0 for a test? And see if this issue solved or remain.

 

[Allen15]

Re: Please help, hopefully simple problem with kvm not starting w/CDROM drive on DL38

I'm not sure if I'm following you, but are you suggesting that now that 2.3 is up and running, that I go through the upgrade instructions to see if it still works after doing so?

Yes, I'm happy to try that if it will help, although I would need to know how to downgrade it, in case it didn't work, too.

Minor correction of the system specs: The CPUs are Xeon L5630's not L5520's as originally posted, though this shouldn't affect the results or compatibility.

 

[Allen15]

Clean install of Proxmox 3.0 won't permit KVMs with operational CD/DVD drives!

Nice share, would you like to upgrade 2.3 to 3.0 for a test? And see if this issue solved or remain.

Can anyone tell if if the only way to downgrade back to 2.3 after an upgrade to 3.0 is to just start over from scratch??? If so, I should probably not put so much work into my VMs before I tried the upgrade test...

---

Edit: I am normally remoted into this system, and can't physically change the boot media when I'm not on-site, so there were limits that I could do until I could get there.

I never did figure out how to back up the VMs, but took a leap of faith to experiment. I realized that I also hadn't checked for updates after the 2.3 installation, so I first did that, and re-checked - the VMs still worked, with optical drive connected.

Next, I did the script upgrade from 2.3 to 3.0, and after purging, cleanup, & rebooting, all of my VMs still work, and pveversion -v shows that the upgrade was successful, also. Perhaps there is a flaw in the 3.0 ISO file or image? I previously tried it both with a boot-CD, and next with a bootable USB flash drive, and the ISOs for each were downloaded separately, on different machines, so I don't think that I got a corrupted copy of it, but rather I got an accurate copy twice, but there is something wrong with that published ISO file or the image that is contained therein.

THIS MUST BE A BUG! And also one that would be nearly fatal to any newbies who discovered Proxmox since 3.0 has been released, because it is kind of a show-stopper for what most folks will have wanted to use Proxmox for (who were new to it)...

Unfortunately, I've run out of time to do further testing on this system, as I need to put it into production asap, and put this office back together before the owners return from vacation to wonder why their server rack is in such disarray, but I will hopefully will have another one with identical specs to play with in the next month or so. Hopefully there is enough information given in this thread for any troubleshooting to be done and this problem can be solved without further input from me, as I'll be busy playing catch-up after this last week of beating my head against this issue. Good luck to all, and hope you fare better, or at least don't waste near as much time before you can get yours to work properly.

I am still quite thankful to the Proxmox team for making a product that is really wonderful, I just wish I didn't end up being the one catching such bugs

Allen

In summary, a clean install doesn't work, but an upgrade from 2.3 does, for unknown reason.