HP Intelligent Provisioning unable to find OS install iso file

I’m working on setting up a brand spanking new HP ProLiant ML310 Gen8 V2 for a small local agency that I also support at my day job. Their old SBS2003 r2 server lost a drive in its RAID 5 array, and the hot spare also failed while trying to rebuild. So instead of trying to find some replacement drives for a 5 and a half year old server we decided to replace it. Luckily I was able to use disk2vhd and get a good copy of the old server and virtualize it temporarily on a nice core i7 laptop (only thing they had that was capable)  that I installed Server 2012 r2 Standard (eval version) on a spare hard drive to get them back up and running quickly and hopefully keep them operating until the new server could be ordered and setup. So far it was worked great! I have it backing up to an external hard drive using the free version of Altaro Hyper-V Backup , which is excellent software I might add, and they can’t tell the difference in their day to day operations. So that brings us to setting up the new server. I was ready to install Server 2012 r2 Std. on the new server using HP’s Intelligent Provisioning but it was unable to see the install ISO on my flash drive, after several re-scans, and plugging flash drive into my desktop to make sure the iso was actually on the drive and readable. Then I got the idea that maybe the problem was the way the file was named, maybe it was too long,  or perhaps it didn’t like the spaces. So I shortened the file name to just server2012r2, instead of the default crazy long name it has when you download it from the volume licensing center, plugged it back into the server, clicked re-scan and there it was, ready to go. So if you run into the same situation, try renaming the iso and see if it works for you.

Losing interest in HP…..

Since working to replace /upgrade all our old XP machines I’m running into more and more printer problems with Windows 7 pro 64bit mostly but also some with the 32 bit variety.  Granted some of these are old Laserjet printers, but the latest, an HP LaserJetP1505n has gotten on my last nerve. I’m replacing it with a Brother workgroup laser printer instead of going with another HP. We are almost exclusively an HP shop but between fighting with printer driver problems and HP’s latest move concerning firmware updates (you can read about it here), I’m seriously looking and going a different direction. What direction that is, I’m not sure. But the last thing a one man IT dept. needs is another support subscription to keep up with when other vendors are giving it away for free.