Proxmox VE freezes on HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10 (4× Xeon Platinum 8280L, 1 TB RAM)

[katti]

Hello,

We are experiencing a critical stability issue when running Proxmox VE on an HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10 server.

The system freezes completely a few minutes after boot, both during installation and after a successful installation.
This behavior is reproducible and consistent across multiple Proxmox VE versions.

Environment Details​

• Server model: HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10
• System ROM (BIOS): U34 v2.36 (July 16, 2020)
• iLO 5 firmware: v2.x
• Boot mode: UEFI
• Workload profile: General Throughput Compute / Energy Efficient
• CPU: 4 × Intel Xeon Platinum 8280L @ 2.70 GHz
• Hyper-Threading: Enabled
• Memory: 1 TB DDR4 ECC Registered
• Storage controller: HPE Smart Array P408i-a (firmware v1.32)
• Network adapters: HPE 561FLR 10 Gb Ethernet
• Installation media: USB (Rufus and BalenaEtcher, multiple attempts)

Proxmox VE Versions Tested​

• Proxmox VE 7.4
• Proxmox VE 8.4 (Debian 11 / kernel 6.5)
• Proxmox VE 9.0.3 (Debian 12 / kernel 6.8)

Symptoms​

• Installation completes successfully
• After 5 to 10 minutes, the server becomes completely unresponsive:
  
  • No ping response
  • No SSH access
  • Local console frozen
• No visible kernel panic or MCE errors in logs before the freeze
• iLO 5 diagnostics report no hardware issues (CPU, memory, power supplies, temperatures all healthy)

Additional Tests Performed​

• Clean installations using official Proxmox ISO images
• Clean installations of Debian and Oracle Linux → same freezing behavior
• VMware ESXi 7.0 runs perfectly stable on the same hardware since 2021
• BIOS reset to defaults
• Secure Boot disabled
• Various performance and power profiles tested

The issue occurs in all scenarios.

Questions​

• Has anyone encountered similar freezes on HPE DL580 Gen10 systems with recent Linux kernels?
• Are there recommended BIOS settings or kernel parameters for this platform (NUMA, C-states, SNC, IOMMU, HPE power management, etc.)?
• Is this a known incompatibility with recent kernels on large 4-socket systems?

Any guidance or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Neobin]

I would start with updating the bios/UEFI and all other firmwares to their most recent version...

 

[katti]

Hello @Neobin


Thank you for the suggestion.

All firmware components are already up to date on this system:

• BIOS / System ROM: updated to the latest available version
• iLO firmware: up to date
• Storage firmware (HPE Smart Array / HPE 3PAR backend): up to date
• All other relevant HPE firmwares have been verified using the official HPE Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP)

Despite this, the issue persists consistently with recent Linux kernels, including:

• Proxmox VE (8.4 and 9.x)
• Debian
• Oracle Linux

In all cases, the system installs successfully but freezes during boot or shortly after login (sometimes triggered by simple console input), without kernel panic or MCE logs.

On the same hardware, VMware ESXi runs stably, which tends to rule out a hardware fault and points instead to a firmware/ACPI/interrupt handling interaction specific to generic Linux kernels on this 4-socket platform.

As part of the troubleshooting, we have already performed extensive tests, including:

• Disabling C-States, x2APIC, Hyper-Threading
• Reducing the number of active cores per CPU
• Adjusting NUMA and power-management BIOS settings
• Testing multiple kernel parameters (intremap=off, noapic, nolapic, etc.)

At this stage, we are focusing on BIOS power/CPU behavior and kernel limitations related to large multi-socket (4-CPU) systems, as the issue appears to be structural rather than configuration-specific.


Any additional insight or known limitations with Linux on DL580 Gen10 platforms would be greatly appreciated.


Best regards,

 

[MarkusKo]

No, your Firmware versions are ancient.

System ROM (BIOS): U34 v2.36 (July 16, 2020) -> 3.60_08-06-2025 (2025-08-14)
iLO 5 firmware: v2.x -> 3.17 (2025-12-05)
Storage controller: HPE Smart Array P408i-a (firmware v1.32) -> 5.61(H) (2025-12-08)
Network adapters: HPE 561FLR 10 Gb Ethernet -> Update from 2025-11-11

Check Firmware versions here:
https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/p...tware&cep=on&driversAndSoftwareFilter=8000012

NIC:
https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/s...ctionId=MTX-d8c86b5c3ce7444d&tab=releaseNotes

Update with SUM / SPP
https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/s...ctionId=MTX-5d74fe753828448f&tab=releaseNotes

Good luck