HP SPP USB Install Guide

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Previously we have written numerous articles in which we showed you how to make bootable USB installation media for Pfsense using either Rufus or the USB Image Tool. While those work well for Pfsense, we have found that neither of those methods work with the HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) firmware update DVD. Below we will detail the steps required to create bootable USB installation media for the HP SPP using HP’s own USB Key Utility 2.0.

  1. Download the latest SPP which in this case is dated 10/01/2015.
  2. Open the downloaded SPP and extract the usb/hpusbkey folder.
  3. Plug in an empty USB stick and fire up USB Image Tool.
  4. Open USB Image Tool and select reset (See Image Below). This will clear any previous boot record that may be on the drive.
  5. Navigate to the extracted hpusbkey folder and run hpusbkey.exe.
  6. Once open, follow the prompts, navigate to .iso and click next. This will begin creating the bootable USB drive (This process can take upwards of 30 minutes).
  7. Insert the newly created USB drive into your server.
  8. Reboot the server and boot from newly created USB drive.

usb-it-reset
That is it. If you followed the process above, you should now have a bootable USB firmware update drive for your HP Proliant Servers.

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11 thoughts on “HP SPP USB Install Guide”

  1. Perfekt. This artikle safes me much time.
    Like Ted says, the Tool is a new one.
    You have a newly formated stick to use the tool.
    My pre provisioned stick with Rufus stuck at the formating process.
    I formated it with Windows and used the usbkey tool successfully.

    Reply

  2. The current HP SPP ISO still has the tool but the tool has been changed to remove the reset button. I was not able to get a bootable USB stick until doing the following:

    1) Make the USB stick with the tool
    2) remake the USB stick with Rufus set to GPT
    3) Make the USB stick again with the tool

    The tool seems to put an old stale nonworking grub on the USB stick if it doesn’t see a preexisting grub. Rufus overwrites it with the correct grub. Then if the HP USB stick utility is run again it sees the newer grub and leaves it alone when it makes the stick.

    Reply

  3. Thanks…i had installed the HP USB Key Utility but the installer didn’t launch the app or create a desktop shortcut and I couldn’t find it in the start menu. I then forgot about it and moved on. This article reminded me about the tool, which I eventually found in the start menu in the folder “USB Key Utility”. Neither the app nor the shortcut nor anything else mention anything about “HP” or “HPE”. The title screen of the app doesn’t even mention it… the only place I saw HPE mentioned was as “© 2014 – 2017 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP” in the freaking Read Me… and possibly in the Terms of Service on the second page of the app’s wizard. Even the title of the app and the executable name lacks HP branding. What a joke!

    Reply

    1. exactly the same for me. I tried it with Rufus and it failed. Then I saw your post and remembered I found and installed the HPE USB Key app the last time I did a SPP. Thanks.

      Reply

  5. Thank you very much! I appreciate so much guys like you taking time to post this stuff! It got me unstuck and saved a lot of time!

    Reply

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