If you use HP servers you hopefully also use or have configured the iLO connection, the iLO port will allow you to connect to the console screen of the server even if Windows is not booted, this allows for installing a server or configuring bios settings etc remotely.

However, yesterday when I tried to connect to one of our servers via iLO (you do this via Internet Explorer)  i got this message;

<?xml version="1.0" ?> - <RIMP>
-<MP>   <ST>5</ST>   <INFORM>The iLO firmware is in a network flash recovery state.</INFORM>
<REFERENCE>Refer to the iLO network flash recovery under the trouble shooting 
section in the iLO users guide.</REFERENCE>   </MP>   </RIMP>
Well that was not what I expected, anyhow the solution is fairly simple, you just need to download the iLO firmware and flash the iLO management processor, this can easily be achieved via FTP.
  • Download the iLO firmware from www.hp.com(support and drivers, search for iLO firmware), note there is difference between iLO/iLO2/iLO3 so check your server specs for which FW to get.
  • Unpack firmware (by far the easiest way is to use www.rarlabs.comWinRar, just rightclick and extract from the .exe you downloaded before)
  • Find the iloXXX.bin and copy it to C:\  (or use your own location if you prefer, just remember to change it in the commands below also).
  • Start a command prompt (cmd.exe)
  • Issue these  commands;

    FTP x.x.x.x  (replace x.x.x.x with the correct IP)
    User: flash
    Password: recovery
    type binary
    put c:\iloXXX.bin   (replace XXX with the version number of the image file)

    and then wait while it flashes the ROM you will see a progress indicator.

After this iLO should be back up working 🙂  easy as pie..