Subject: Debian VServer Kernel for HP Proliant DL380 Gen9 server?
From: Harald Weidner <hweidner-lists@gmx.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 16:12:20 +0100

Hello,

I have tried to use Linux-VServer with Debian jessie (and wheezy) on a
recent HP server model Proliant DL380 Gen9.

Neither the psand.net kernel (tried 3.14 and 3.18) nor the lihas.de kernel
(3.10) boot on this machine.

The psand.net kernel recognizes the hard disk, but stops shortly after that
with the message "Waiting for /dev to become fully populated". See
https://www.hweidner.de/files/dl380_gen9_vserver_psand_3.14.png

The lihas.de kernel complains multiple times about missing volumes and finally
drops into busybox within the initrd environment. Further investigations show
that the hard disk is not found although the hpsa module is loaded. See
https://www.hweidner.de/files/dl380_gen9_vserver_lihas_3.10.png

The original Debian kernels 3.16 (jessie) and 3.2 (wheezy) work fine on this
hardware. The machine has a HP SmartArray Controller controlled by the hpsa
driver.

03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array Gen9 Controllers (rev
01)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at 95300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
	Memory at 95400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
	[virtual] Expansion ROM at 95480000 [disabled] [size=512K]
	Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/32 Maskable+ 64bit+
	Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=64 Masked-
	Capabilities: [c0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [300] #19
	Kernel driver in use: hpsa

The system is configured for EFI boot, with a 100 MB EFI boot partition as
/dev/sda1 and a 100 MB Linux /boot partition as /dev/sda2. The remaing disk
space is handeled by LVM2, including the root and swap volumes.

Does anybody run Linux-VServer under Debian (or any other Linux)
successfully on this quite common server hardware? Or know how to get there?

Regards,
Harald