Installing Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) and Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise (Intel® RSTe) Driver for Windows on Windows Server 2016 hangs after pressing the 'Restart' button. Any Idea Why?

[dan3]

I have 3 HP Z8 G4 all configured the same with .NET Framework 4.8. On two of the three machine installs then restarts without any issues. On the 3rd Z8, it would just show 'timer' icon after pressing the 'Restart' button. I waited for more than half hour.

I went as far as reinstall Windows Server 2018 without anything other than .NET Framework 4.8, it still did the same thing.

Have there been previous incident where installing the drivers causes Windows Server 2016, or any other Windows OS, to just hang and not restart appropriately?

Thanks,

Dan

[Esteban_C_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

We have received your inquiries regarding Intel® VROC and Intel® RSTe. We are forwarding your message to the right Intel® community (Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise)

Thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter. 

Esteban Ch.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for contacting Intel® Memory & Storage Support.

As we understand, you need assistance with your Intel® VROC and Intel® RSTe in your HP* server. If we infer correctly, please review and provide us with the following information:

• We advise you to open a ticket in parallel with HP* to discard any hardware/software issue.

•  The SSU logs.

1-          Go to https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/ (for Windows*) and to https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26735/ (for Linux) download the software.

2-          When finished downloading it, open it.

3-          Attach the file obtained to your reply.

• We will like to know if you are using the drivers provided by HP* or the ones available at our download center.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for having contacted Intel® Memory & Storage Support. 

This is just a friendly reminder that your community thread remains open.

Should you need our technical assistance please do not hesitate to contact us back. 

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[dan3]

Josh,

Sorry for the late reply.

I have attached the scan. I have removed the (2) 4TB SATA drives as it just scans and scans Windows Server never boots. Once those drives are removed, it boots up fine. I have tried both raided and non-raided on the SATA drive and no go. I hear the drives just spinning during Windows bootup like it is trying to scan the sector. In the BIOS I made it so it doesn't try to boot off those drives. Nothing seem work.

Windows Server starts up just fine without the VROC drivers. The minute I install the drivers Windows Server 2016 won't boot up. Without those drivers, my M.2 drives won't work and I can't RAID them.

Thanks,

Dan

[JosafathB_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for your reply and for the information provided.

Based on the troubleshooting done and the information you provided the issue seems to be related to compatibility of the drivers with your OS.

We did a little research related to your “HP Z8 G4 Workstation” and we do not see Windows* server as an OS supported for your workstation (https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-z8-g4-workstation/16449803) and we advise you to contact HP* to get the proper drivers for your system.

Take into consideration that the OEM create and modify their RSTe solution to fit their needs and they have their list of compatible hardware and software that sometimes is different from our list. For example, there are cases that some of the systems need a specific BIOS or software configuration to be able to work with and specific OS.

We will be looking forward to your reply in case you need further assistance.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[dan3]

Josh,

Funny you sent this. I saw this previously, but it was only for Windows 10 so I was hesitant to install. Not to mention it was a much older version, 5.4.9. I tried this version on another Z8 that was getting a fresh install of Windows Server 2016. That version worked even though it was for Windows 10.

I guess I will move forward with this version.

Do you have any idea why the newer version does not work? Are there any significant fixes, improvements that were done between 5.4. and 6.1?

I guess going forward, any Z8's with large SATA spinning drives, will have to use this version of RST.

Thanks,

Dan

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for your reply; you are more than welcome. We are glad to hear that you found the information we shared with you helpful and that by using the drivers provided by your OEM HP* on their website solved your issue.

To answer your question;

The latest version of the driver that is available on the HP website seems to be older than the version available in our download center this is expected because they need to test, validate and modify the driver to be able to work with their systems. In the ReleaseNotes.pdf section 4 (https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28865/eng/Intel(R)_RSTe_6_1-ReleaseNotes.pdf) you can find the new features introduced in this version of the driver.

About Intel® drivers and software

The driver or software for your Intel® component might have been changed or replaced by the computer manufacturer. We recommend you to work with your computer manufacturer before installing our driver so you don’t lose features or customizations.

We advise you to continue using the driver provided by your OEM and in case that you need an updated version of the driver to get in contact with HP* to confirm that they validate and support the usage of a different driver than the one published on their support website since it may cause issue and instability on your system.

We would like to know if you need further assistance or if we can close this community thread.

If you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

We were reviewing your community thread and we will like to know if you need further assistance related to the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (Intel® RSTe) in your HP* system.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[dan3]

Josh,

I think we are good for now. We will move forward using the older Windows 10 drivers on Windows Server 2016.

I am going to hijack thread now. Does IAStorDataSrv usually use so much memory? This is using HP's older version of the driver on a Windows 10 machine.

Please see attached.

Does the newer version resolve this issue? Since it is a 32 bit app, I guess it is limited to the amount of memory it can allocate?

Thanks,

Dan

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for your reply,

The memory usage of the “IAStorDataSrv” is not fixed and can vary from system to system depending on the RAID configuration and settings.

We will appreciate if you can expand the “IAStorDataSrv” process and provide us with a screenshot to have a better understanding of the applications running in the background.

As previously mentioned:

The driver or software for your Intel® component might have been changed or replaced by the computer manufacturer. We recommend you to work with your computer manufacturer so you don’t lose features or customizations.

We advise you to contact your OEM HP* regarding their driver to see if they have a new version that will be compatible with your system. If not to get further information and support related to your current version.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

I was reviewing your community post and we would like to know if you need further assistance related to your Intel® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (Intel® RSTe) or if we can close this community thread.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[dan3]

Josh,

Sorry for the late reply. Had jury duty.

I think we are good. I have attached the expanded Task Manager for IAStorDataSVc. The computer was restarted due to Windows update. Hopefully this will help you solve the memory issue.

Feel free to close the thread.

Dan

[JosafathB_Intel]

Hello 3000023247261.5684335352939448E12,

Thank you for your reply.

As per your consent, this community thread is now closed if you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best regards,

Josh B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel