XG installation on HP MicroServer

Kieran,

have a look at the following threads:

https://community.sophos.com/products/xg-firewall/f/sophos-xg-firewall-general-discussion/75623/no-bootable-medium-after-setup---weird-non-existent-disk-layout/291011#291011

https://community.sophos.com/products/xg-firewall/f/initial-setup/74568/non-system-disk-following-install-on-microserver-gen8/288769#288769

Hi,

I already saw those posts however they aren't of any help. I don't understand why this isn't working; I thought it could be a storage controller compatibility issue however when connecting a drive to the optical disk port which uses the intel controller the issue persists

thanks 

I've tried AHCI, SW RAID and Legacy Mode (IDE) all result in the same error

I had the same issue on a HP DL 380e G8 where the OS did not have the proper drivers. Disabling the ob-board controller did the trick.

See the following guide:

http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=7399514&docLocale=en_US&docId=mmr_sf-EN_US000006560

I disabled the controller however the issue persists

Thanks

Install a Linux os disto to check that Linux boots correctly.

If the answer is yes, XG does not include your sata controllers drivers.

Centos installed without out issue. I've now tried three different controllers (Intel, Marvell and HP) and experience the same issue no matter what controller I use

So I think that XG does not include your SATA/SAS controllers.

Isn't that unlikely as i'm experiencing the same issue with 3 different controllers of different brands

Hi Kieran,

I agree that it is very unlikely but not impossible, just as a test could you try installing UTMv9 on your microserver?

If that doesn't work either then it can point us in a definitive hardware conflict, if it does work then there is a high degree of possibility that there are missing drivers but maybe not to do with your SATA/SAS controllers. It's shaky at the moment, but anything UTMv9 can install to, the XG should be able to as well.

You can download and install UTMv9 from https://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/utm-downloads.aspx

Looking forward to hearing what happens with this test!

Emile

Hi,

UTM9 works absolutely fine I've been running it for months with no issue

Thanks

Hi Kieran,

Quick answer, excellent!

I am now leaning towards Luks original suggestion that the XG may not have drivers for the SATA/SAS controller which, regardless of the mode used (AHCI/IDE), is the basis of the communication with the HDD. What is interesting is the installer stated it installed successfully.

The last test I would do to check it if it is the HDD controller is install the XG to directly attached storage if you have a spare Ext HDD about, you should be able to select the drive used for the install.

If that succeeds it is definitely the HDD controller, if it fails there as well then there may be an issue with how the BIOS boot up is identifying where the boot records for the XG are.

Before doing this, have you tried enforcing the HP microserver to specific boot from the installed drive (stupid question but just to make sure).

Emile

Hi Kieran,

Quick answer, excellent!

I am now leaning towards Luks original suggestion that the XG may not have drivers for the SATA/SAS controller which, regardless of the mode used (AHCI/IDE), is the basis of the communication with the HDD. What is interesting is the installer stated it installed successfully.

The last test I would do to check it if it is the HDD controller is install the XG to directly attached storage if you have a spare Ext HDD about, you should be able to select the drive used for the install.

If that succeeds it is definitely the HDD controller, if it fails there as well then there may be an issue with how the BIOS boot up is identifying where the boot records for the XG are.

Before doing this, have you tried enforcing the HP microserver to specific boot from the installed drive (stupid question but just to make sure).

Emile

Hi,

It's definitely booting from the correct drive. I tried your suggestion of installing to an external hard drive however it doesn't seem to allow me to do this. It says that a disk can't be detected I also tried this on a different machine (Optiplex 3030) with the same result

thanks 

Kieran90,

I am sure that your controller 's driver are not included. Please post your hw info, specially the hdd/raid controller and we hope that some developer will find out if they will be included into some build.

Thanks

Hi,

It's a HP ProLiant Microserver Gen8, HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller, Celeron G1610T, HP B332i Ethernet adapter

thanks

Kieran90,

In another thread Sachin wrote that XG supports the same HCL as UTM9, and I checked the Smart Array B120i controller and it is not there.

You can find the HCL here:

https://sophserv.sophos.com/repo_kb/118185/file/118185_HCL9001.pdf

They are continuously adding new HW into the HCL and I hope they will add new servers (like yours) too.

Hope this helps!

Great find Luk!

Kieran, you can install a free version of ESXi and virtualise it? You'd suffer a minor overhead but you'd still get decent throughput.

What is interesting though is that you managed to install UTM onto it so maybe there is unconfirmed compatibility with that controller.

Emile

Hi,

thanks for the suggestion however upon looking into it the requirements for esxi are too high. This is because it requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM and this is what the server has. I'm just going to wait and hopefully support for the controller will be added

thanks

I have this same problem with identical hardware, FWIW I don't think it's necessarily the SATA/RAID controller at fault. After reading this thread I installed (very slowly) to a 64GB USB in the internal socket and still had the same error. Think it may be something peculiar to the HP BIOS, but I believe I've tried most of the options and I'm about ready to quit too.

Glad I found this thread anyway, didn't spend as much time going round in circles as I could have so thanks for that. Will go back to UTM 9.