HP DL380 G5 Network problem with fresh install of ESXi 4.1?

[leadacid]

Hey everyone!

I've got one that's just kickin me.

I recently took out one of our many HP DL380 G5 servers from its old job and I'm turning it into an ESXi system for our devs to use for testing VMs and whatnot.

The server is an HP DL380 G5, Dual Intel 5140 2.33GHz with 8GB of RAM, running with some onboard SAS drives, the onboard broadcom HP NC373i network adapter, a qLogic iSCSI HBA, and an Intel Pro 1000 (82571EB) quad-port ethernet adapter.  I have the management network plugged into eth0, one of the onboard broadcom gigabit ethernet adapters.  I'm running, essentially, the exact same setup with another ESXi server and that one works like a champ, and roughly the same setup on three ESX 4.0 hosts and I've never had a hiccup with any of them.

The install goes smoothly, using the HP specific 4.1_U1_Apr_2011_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550_00096.iso file.  Once the install is complete, it pulls down a DHCP address without problem.  I can ping the adapter at this point.  I can't, however, connect to its HTTP server (IE cannot display the webpage), nor connect to it via the vSphere client (Server took too long to respond, operation timed out).  Changing ethernet adapters, fixed versus dynamic IP, etc. doesn't change the outcome.  I am able to enable SSH and connect to the server.

I've tried reinstalling and different versions of 4.1 (standard vs HP customized) and that didn't change anything.  I did not try 4.0.  I tried windows server 2003 and the network worked great there, so I'm not sure it's a hardware problem.

Any ideas?  I've done my fair share of ESX installs and I can't figure this one out!

Thanks!

[vmroyale]

Hello.

Are you on a different network segment with this ESXi server?  Sounds like maybe some ports are being blocked.  Is there a proxy or firewall between your client and this server?

Good Luck!

[jamesbowling]

What vmroyale said!!!  HA!

I would check to make sure that there isn't any port filtering going on.  Sounds like a possible firewall blocking the ports.

Message was edited by: jamesbowling - due to lack of refresh to see vmroyale's post!

[DSTAVERT]

I would also check and update firmware if necessary on the server to levels appropriate for ESXi (not just the latest).

[Renmo]

have you tried connecting you laptop directly to the server to check if there were any blocked ports ?

\

[leadacid]

Guys-

Thanks for the advice so far.  I ran nmap against the server and the following ports are open:

22     tcp     open     ssh

80     tcp     open     http

427     tcp     open     svrloc

443     tcp     open     https

902     tcp     open     iss-realsecure

5989     tcp     open     unknown

8000     tcp     open     http-alt

8100     tcp     open     unknown

I haven't had a chance to run down to the server room with my laptop yet, but when I try to access the server on the laptop I did the scan with, I'm able to SSH to the server, it seems like I'm able to open blank web pages on ports 8000 and 8100, but port 80 and 443 don't seem to work.

Running down to the server room now.  Stay tuned for details!

[DSTAVERT]

I  would try the vSphere Client on a different workstation. ESXi does not have a firewall so there will be no ports blocked at the ESXi host. I might also be inclined to reinstall ESXi. Do an MD5 checksum against the downloaded ISO image as well as the burned CD.

[leadacid]

I directly connected my laptop to the server and got the same results.  I will try different versions of ESXi this afternoon.  I had been using the HP iLO virtual media interface to install the software, I'll try using a CDROM this time and see what happens.

[leadacid]

So I ended up taking the server down and removing the Intel quad ethernet card and the qLogic iSCSI HBA, and now the server installs and runs ESXi 4.1 without a problem!  I'll be taking it back down and testing one card and then the other to see if there was a specific problem with one (or both) of the cards in this server.

Thanks for the help everyone!