I'm having a frustrating time trying to boot an OS on my older Proliant Gen9 server from an ISO file using virtual media. It seems like no matter what I do, the server defaults to booting from UEFI, ignoring my boot order settings. The only time I've managed to boot anything is through the HTML5 virtual console, but that's incredibly slow. When I tried installing, it told me there was no root disk available. After rebooting to Intelligent Provisioning, the server once again bypassed that option and went straight to UEFI. I even reset the RBSU to factory defaults in hopes of resolving the issue, yet it still didn't work. I've used a little SSH script to set the ILO settings correctly for ISO booting, but I'm still stuck. Is this really as complicated as it seems? Can anyone help before I lose my mind?
6 Answers
When I had this issue, reinstalling Intelligent Provisioning from an ISO fixed everything. Might be worth a shot for you!
I recommend installing Windows 10 from a USB drive first, then updating the BIOS and ILO firmware. After those updates, try booting from the ISO again. I had significant trouble booting Proxmox over ILO until I did a similar update.
I've faced similar slow ISO loading times. Since I'm about 12000 km away from my server, I spun up a Windows VPS close to my data center and installed it from there. It went smoothly, just took it down after—cost me around 30 cents an hour!
A few things come to mind: in UEFI systems, the boot order can often be disregarded. What really matters is what's stored in the UEFI NVRAM. Also, using virtual media for booting can be quite slow—expect long wait times. If possible, utilizing a physical DVD might be faster. You could also try booting from a live CD to reset your RAID controller settings. Sometimes utility partitions get lost but their records remain in NVRAM, which can complicate booting.
How far are you from the server? Maybe it's time to try a USB-DVD drive? It sounds like your setup isn't recognizing the ISO when you try to boot. It's possible that the current ISO is faulty—perhaps try booting with a different, smaller ISO to see if that works.
Are you using the F11 option to select boot order at startup? That should let you choose your boot source, regardless of what UEFI is set to.
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