PSOD using HPE 6.5.0U3 (14990892) on DL380p G7

[farokh]

I'm running into a PSOD on an HPE DL380p G7 when I try to boot using the HPE specific 6.5U3 from 20-Dec-2019 off a PCIe based SSD, but not when I boot off an SD card inserted on the motherboard.

Basically I currently have a DL380p G7 running HPE PreGen9 Custom Image for ESXi 6.5 U3 from 20-Dec-2019 booting off an SD card that is inserted on the motherboard. I am trying to move to using a PCIe SSD RAID 1 card so that my boot drive is mirrored. I have done this successfully with this exact same version on a DL380p G6. I tried to search for the issue, but everything is from years ago, and it's not clear it applies to the current distro.

I've attached a picture of the screen, but there's an exception 14 that is occurring in sfcb-smx.

I am using the on-board ethernet, but I also have a Mellanox ConnectX-3 10gb card.

Any pointers would be helpful.

Thanks.

[NathanosBlightc]

Before checking the Dump detail and PSOD information, are you sure check the compatible versions of ESXi for your server's vendor and model!?

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

[jburen]

Quick search: https://www.virtualmvp.com/hpe-proliant-g7-servers-and-vsphere-6-5-purple-screen-of-death/

Cause could be drivers in the HP ISO image.

[farokh]

This is the last 6.5 that is supposed to support pre g9 servers, and as I said, it works fine on a g6.

[farokh]

I saw this, but it's also from 2 years ago. I would think that the build from 4 months ago wouldn't still be affected by this...

[jburen]

If the build is cumulative it may contain drivers that might cause this issue... I think it's worth investigating.

[farokh]

So I tried creating a custom build following the instructions given on the page, but using the most recent 6.5 build and it appeared to install fine, but when I attempted to boot from the installed version, I would get a PICe Bus error and the machine would have to be power cycled.

So, at this point, I'm giving up on the G7 and going back to a G6 which I know works with the 6.5 installed from HPE. Maybe not the most elegant, but the G6 will do what I need without my spending a lot of time trying to chase down the cause of the error.