Cannot Install Windows Server 2012 R2 on DL380 G9 (Fixed!)

I've been struggling with a relatively new HP DL380 Gen 9 server that I'm trying to convert to a Windows 2012 R2 box. Initially this server was running vSphere 5.5 and ran without any hiccups, however, at the end of the day, I only had one server running inside this host. To me, it made more sense for it to be a physical Windows Server.

Upon first attempting to convert to a Windows box, I kept having issues installing the O/S with HP Intelligent Provisioning. After reading several posts online, I decided to upgrade it to the latest version (v2.50). This unfortunately did not resolve much. Every time I went through the installation routine, it would hang or error out at some point of the installation. Sometimes it wouldn't see the drive and sometimes it got caught in a reboot loop. I finally decided to bypass the built-in HP Intelligent Provisioning tool and installed straight from the media. This worked fine, but you do have to install drivers with SPP media after installing the O/S. I did run into another issue once everything was operational, the server was hard locked at an HP splash screen and after much troubleshooting, the motherboard turned out to be bad. The only error I noticed was that the server overheated.

Once the motherboard got replaced, I went through the process of upgrading the built-in HP Intelligent Provisioning tools once again to the latest version and then followed that up by using the SPP to update firmware and BIOS since the mobo was behind. After multiple attempts at installing the O/S with HP Intelligent Provisioning, different Windows Server media, USB drives, DVD single and dual-layer media and just about any scenario you can think of, I decided to remove the secondary HP Smart Array P441/4GB SAS Controller that was connected to some direct attached storage (DAS). At this point, I successfully used the built-in provisioning tools and it booted into Windows without any issues whatsoever.

tl;dr - remove any additional RAID controllers from server and leverage HP Intelligent Provisioning (F10) to install Server 2012. Also, change the power profile to Maximum Performance.

Edit (12/28/16): After replacing the motherboard a couple of times, the Smart Array card, a couple of CPUs and RAM sticks, HP elevated this case and reviewed the logs a little closer. Unfortunately the CPU was causing machine check errors (MCE) in the IML log. Turns out that the server was shifting c-states on the CPUs and creating a number of issues of us. I had seen a number of similar issues with the same gen hardware and Linux OS, but never with Windows. The solution turned out to be changing the system configuration under power management to Maximum Performance.

Press F9 during POST when promted.
Select System Configuration -> Bios/Platform Configuration (RBSU) -> Power Management
Set HP Power Profile to Maximum Performance
Save configuration and reboot.

Setting static/fixed WMI port in Windows 2012 R2

Here's a quick how-to on setting up a static port for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). I'm assuming that you have specific reasons to do so, in my case, I wanted to limit the firewall rule scope to a single port instead of the default range of ports. Microsoft allows you to run a quick command and after restarting the WMI services, you end up with the fixed port 24158 for WMI. While that's the default fixed port, there are ways of changing to one of your liking and I'll also demonstrate that.

Step 1 - Elevated Command Prompt

From an elevated command prompt, run the following command:

winmgmt -standalonehost

Step 1

Step 2 - Restart WMI Services

Stop and restart the WMI service (also from an elevated command prompt):

net stop winmgmt && net start winmgmt

Step 2

At this point, if you're not using the Windows 2012 firewall, you are done. WMI has been set to static port 24158. The following steps are optional, depending on your configurations and needs.

Step 3 - Set Preferred TCP Port (Optional)

Launch Component Services from Run or the command prompt.

Step 3a

From Component Services, navigate to Computers\My Computer\DCOM Config\Windows Management & Instrumentation

Step 3b

Step 3c

Right click on Windows Management and Instrumentation and select Properties.

Step 3d

Step 3e

Change the TCP port to the one of your choice.

Step 3f

Step 4 - Add Firewall Rule (Optional)

If you're using the built in Windows firewall, you'll need to add a new incoming rule to allow WMI traffic on the newly designated static port. On the following command, we're assuming that the static port is 24158 and that the new firewall rule is called WMIFixedPort, although you can name it anything you want. Make sure you run the following from an elevated command prompt.
netsh firewall add portopening TCP 24158 WMIFixedPort

Undo WMI Changes

If you would like to go back to default WMI port/behavior, run the following from an elevated command prompt.
winmgmt -sharedhost

Sources

Binary2Dec - WMI Fixed Port
MSDN - winmgmt