VMware Communities: Message List - Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

purefluid — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:21:17 GMT

hi everyone, i was having exacvlt the same problem with our new hp dl160 G5, 2 processors, 16 GB Ram, it would core dump in under a minute once it had booted, solved the whole problem by removing the DVD drive that we had got to work with it, strange solution but it works and hope it helps some of you others who are having problems. I spent ages reading the forums trying to make it work, updated all the firmware, one other thing dont install the version of esxi with the hp tools on it - that doesnt work with this model properly even with the DVD drive removed.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

jcabs — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:15:21 GMT

That is very good to hear. I hope to give this a try if teings calm down here at work some.

Thank you very much for responding.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

guggo — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:58:58 GMT

install the latest firmware for dl160G5 and u are fine

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

jcabs — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:34:22 GMT

kciirtap-

I was going to try ESXi on a DL 160 G5 and wanted to check in with you on how it has gone since Nov 17. Also, do I understand this post correctly that the newest build of ESXi will run on the DL 160 G5 without any modifications? Your help is appreciated.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

cbarria — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:26:12 GMT

So what's the latest on this? Is ESXi or ESX 3.5 supported/works on the DL160 G5? Without any issues, such as the slow disk i/o reports?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Tokyusho — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:41:43 GMT

Have you tried to update BMC Firmware to version 3.06? Works for me with ESXi 3.5 U3 (Build 123629). PSOD is not occuring any more

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

lucaa76 — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:22:11 GMT

i have the same problem on HP ProLian DL 160 G5.

The standard ESXi image works fine, but i can't install HP Agent and the system fan make to much noise

The HP ESXi image... dump. After 50 seconds....

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:29:23 GMT

Are you running the latest BIOS / firmware for all the components of the server and have you disabled all components that you don't need to run ESXi?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

bluetw — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:16:47 GMT

There's a generic ESXi install CD and one for HP servers. Which are you using?

I try both .

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:10:17 GMT

There's a generic ESXi install CD and one for HP servers. Which are you using?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

bluetw — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:44:16 GMT

.... after starting ESX go to console (Alt-F1, see also "unsupported" mode and "enable SSH in ESX" topics) type vi /bootbank/boot.cfg and set "kernelopt=acpi=off" -> NOK- the ESXi boot correctly no hang up on Enabling Interrupts but at the end when I launch the consol (alt F1) or go to customize system (F2) ESXi crash after few seconds and display a core dump containing Exception type 14... Chipset: 203: using mpsIntRouting/noACPI option, make sure it is on purpose...

I have the same error message. Does anyone have the solution?

Exception type 14 in world 2264 :sfcbd @ ......

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

guggo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:10:05 GMT

you dont need to hack VMware ESX Server 3i on HP DL160 , boots just fine!

cheers onehand

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Wilco154 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:17:26 GMT

I install it from te cd and after a minute or 2 it get a dump

i reboot the system en after a minute or 2 the same

snif snif for me

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kcirtap — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:31:00 GMT

Just an update...

I just finish reinstalling ESXi on DL 160 G5 with the latest build *"build-**123629"* and Wow!!!
It's a breeze, i mean it only took me less than 5 minutes to install and it's up and running right away!
you dont need to put acpi=off on the boot and you dont need to edit the boot.cfg or uncheck VMkernel.Boot.ACPI!!

Now im on the process on creating guest os. i hope this will be a good sign...

Thanks!

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kcirtap — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:43:09 GMT

Ok now i got my ESXi running on DL160 G5.
I edit the boot.cfg and add the acpi=off on both partition. bootbank and altbootbank.

First try same problem, when you reboot it will get stuck again.

Second try i uncheck the acpi option on VI client. and it seems to work fine.

Now everytime i reboot i dont need to edit the boot.cfg BUT.... there's always a but hehehehe

when you reboot or shutdown a pink screen shows up... so you need to manually hard reboot the server.
right now i just ignore it and continue to install guest OS.

First install works fine with Windows 2008 Standard 32-bit with 2 processors. (every time i put 4 core it just hangs...)
was able to install, snapshot and update fine.

Second Install - Windows 2008 Standard 64-bit with 2 processors.
This it it took sometime, and when it reaches around 50-60% of the installl my vi client got disconnected. I check the console and it cannot ping anything so i need to force reboot again.

Still testing other OS versions....

I'm loosing confidence to put this server as an esxi production that will hold the maid DC and Sharepoint...
if that happen this will be an overkill for exchange 2007 with 15-20 people, but anyway let see...

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kcirtap — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:21:58 GMT

yes i use acpi=off and it's a fresh copy of the dd image.
i tried to create the USB a couple of times but does'nt work. when i tried it on my DELL OPTIPLEX 745 it works fine.

I'm currenty testing again the server today, will post if thier are any progress.

Thanks!

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:20:50 GMT

when you boot from USB are you also using the apci=off option and is it a fresh copy of the DD image?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kcirtap — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:39:06 GMT

i've done the same thing, i edit the boot.cfg on both partitio. but everytime you restart you need to edit again.

I'll try what Dave.Mishchenko said later.

But any idea on why it wont boot to USB and cannot create Windows 2008 64-bit?

What im planning to do with this server is to install ESXi and host our main DC here, but i guess if it's not that stable it's a pretty bad idea...

Anyone using this server on production with ESXi???

Thanks again!

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

mshember1 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:00:10 GMT

ewwww. Thank you for pointing that one out. One more reboot and I would have had to remount and edit again. Guess I should read the whole thead but I will claim the noob hat.

Still reading this stuff as I had to see where advanced was.

Thanks again!

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:31:25 GMT

ESXi has two boot partitions. One in the primary (/bootbank) and the other is the backup (/altbootbank). When you patch an ESXi host, a complete set of firmware is copied to /altbookbank and it then becomes /bootbank on the next reboot.

I believe you can change the setting in Configuration / Advanced Settings which will eliminate the need to mess with the boot file.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

mshember1 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:16:03 GMT

One thing that may help is the fact I found boot.cfg in two places.

I used a rescue load and mounted two partitions looking for the file.

I edited both and have rebooted a couple times with no problems.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kcirtap — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:51:57 GMT

Hi everyone!

I have a HP ProLiant DL160 G5 Special Rack Server (481180-001).

I was able to install ESXi build-110271 by adding acpi=off.
edited the boot.cfg.
I enable ssh and can login via ssh and VI Client.

Now my problem....

1. everytime i restart ESXi the next time it will boot up it will be stuck on Enabling interrupts and i need to manually edit again the boot.cfg and add acpi=off to be able to boot again.
2. For some reason i cannot make my ESXi USB work on this server but on my DELL 745 OPTIPLEX it works and other machines. It always go to PANIC...
3. First try to install a 64-bit Windows 2008 it said that this server does'nt support 64-bit guest.... wierd...
4. On my 2-3 try i was able to boot Win2k8 64-bit and it's on the process of installing.. just expanding the files...
5. So while waiting suddently my VI Client got disconnected... i was'nt able to login via VI and ssh... and on the console it still says that i have the IP assigned via DHCP but when i tried pinging the gw or other machine i got no reply...

so im just wondering how come the other guys was able to install and use esxi on there DL160.

BTW this DL160 is only 3 days old... too bad they did'nt look on the HCL for esxi...

thanks for the help! Good luck to everyone!

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Wilco154 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:10:11 GMT

Nope the same problem

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

iisat — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:52:46 GMT

Try acpi=off with quotes

mboot.c32 vmkernel.tgz "acpi=off" --- binmod.tgz --- ienviroment.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Wilco154 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:34:49 GMT

I have a new dl160

but if a change al of this it stil hangs om "Starting VMware ESX Server 3i: Enabling interrupts ..."

mboot.c32 vmkernel.tgz acpi=off --- binmod.tgz --- ienviroment.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

only what i have extra is 2x 500gb in Raid1?

what can i do?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:55:31 GMT

Hi Dave,

I have no much time for analysis but, HOST (via Virtual infrastructure Client) reporting high utilization on guest but extremely low on host. It looks like something wrong with attaching CPU resources for guest.

Inside guest (Windows 2003 Server Standard with Terminal Services Role and third party 32bit app) there are no specific process aquiring most CPU(with list process for all users). But CPU in Windows Task Manager is on 100%.

I haven't time to run for example Process Explorer from sysinternals. Memory allocation was not very high and mostly free.

Thats all.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:23:41 GMT

Is it the guest that is reporting 100% CPU or the host as well? Any idea what process in the VM is running high?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:04:02 GMT

Another observation:

HP Proliant DL320 R05p(eon X3065, 2GB)

ESXi installed in standard mode no tricks, and works looks normally, but...

...when I start using virtual Windows 2003 Standard Server as Terminal Server - with more than 3 concurrent session processor peak to 100% and nothing helps.

So I restart guest system but after restart its still 100 % CPU. After restarting host (ESXi) it will help but only until 3 users connected.

Finally we move this server to ESXi on DL 380 G5 (on compatibility list). Now even 10 users works normally.

So the problems with compatibility are very wide, and again I strongly suggest to use only compatible HW for VMware "production" enviroments.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

nknatter — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:17:11 GMT

folks, on my ML150 G5, i do get this same message only when i add ACPI=OFF to boot options.
if omitted, the box boots up, but then hangs @ config / reboot screen with Alt-F12 message
CPU0: ...not idle since ... seconds, may be locked and produces PANIC message only after
about 1 hour. any ideas what is wrong here ? added cards:

PCIe Firewire controller
PCIe Network Interface

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

robertoumberto — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:30:39 GMT

thx for the fast answer.

tomorrow i will try

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:49:19 GMT

mboot.c32 vmkernel.tgz acpi=off --- binmod.tgz --- ienviroment.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

Hope you will be succesfull now. And don't bother - it takes me a half of of day to find out i'm not really the "linux guy".

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

robertoumberto — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:33:03 GMT

Hi,

anyone tell me how to edit the line?

I try:

mboot.c32 vmkernel.gz --- binmod.tgz "acpi=off" --- ienviroment.tgz --- cim.tgz --- oem.tgz --- license.tgz --- install.tgz

but the installation still hang on the point of enabling interrupts

It's version ESX 3.5i, 3.5.0_Update_2-110271

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

iisat — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:29:04 GMT

After step 4b you may forget about boot.cfg because ESX rewrites it during every restart procedure.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:15:46 GMT

My bad - are you able to remove 4a once you have 4b in place?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

iisat — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:56:26 GMT

I don't understood you mostly but 4a is needed to boot ESX just after installation.

Could you explain your proposition to me?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:51:58 GMT

Yes - I'm wondering if it's just a duplicate and if that's the case, then 4b is more desirable as that setting will survive patches.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

iisat — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:49:08 GMT

Did you mean to do 4b without 4a stage?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:41:39 GMT

Have you tried it with just the change in the VI client (i.e. step 4 b)?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

iisat — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:31:53 GMT

Hi!

I've changed last part of this instruction because 4b was not working. So my edition looks like this:

1. Press Tab on very first screen of ESXi install

2. Move cursor just after first tgz filename and write "acpi=off"

3. press Enter and ESXi successfully install on DL160G5

4. Be careful because after this setting is lost and problem appears again - solution:

a) boot from any live cd, mount second FAT16 partition, then edit boot.cfg on this partition and in second line set "kernelopt=acpi=off"

b) after starting ESX run VMWare Infrastructure Client, logon to ESX, go to Configuration -> Software -> Advanced Settings -> VMkernel and disable VMKernel.Boot.ACPI option

This solution is tested with DL160 G5 and VMware ESXi 3.5.0 build-110271

Note: Stop error described in this topic still appears when you initiate shutdown process. Restart functionality works normal.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:49:07 GMT

For true production enviroment we also purchase certified DL 380G5

As DL160 G5 is not on compatibility list we use our solution only for test and knowledge enviroment.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

support@serial.ch — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:42:16 GMT

Hello,

We have stopped our test with ESXi on this hardware... Thanks a lot anyway for your support...

Actually we did not plan when we bought this hardware to use it with ESXi as it was not released...

Next time we will use certified ESX hardware... Well it was a good experience anyway to see what problem can be encountered and how ESXi is packaged...

Best regards

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:17:38 GMT

Do you using standard HP RAM or some third party ? Such crashes may suggest memory problems. Maybe stay with HP original RAM and then try.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

support@serial.ch — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:45:02 GMT

Hello,

Our hardware is:

2*250Gb SATA HDD

4*1Go RAM

1 internal DVD drive (added after) - maye the source of the issue ?

--> No additional disk controler, network adapter, no USB keboard or mouse only standard ps2

Actually in my last test (by doing it quickly before it crash ) I was able to launch console (alt-f1 +"unsupported") and cd /bootbank and vi boot.cfg the option kernelopt=acpi=off was alread set (with Knoppix I found a third partition with a boot.cfg and an oem.tgz

Well, maybe we are not lucky with our hardware... I will do a final test without de DVD drive and move to another solution for the server base OS.

EDIT: I did my final test without DVD drive and also with only one HDD, well it crashed... so we are indeed unlucky with our DL 160..

Best regards,

Message was edited by: support@serial.ch

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:31:59 GMT

Also during installation of ESXi you can add not only "acpi=off" but also "noapic" and "nolapic".During my tests I use this arguments together but finally found that only acpi=off is necessary.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:28:59 GMT

I haven't such a problem with crashing on Alt-F1 or F2. Maybe you add some additional HW ? Like disk controller, network, HBA ? I make my solution on very clean system with standard 160GB sigle SATA HDD and no additional HW. Only I add 4x2GB kingston memory (server the have 10GB memory).

Maybe you use USB keyboard or mouse (i use PS/2 in such situations only to avoid problems) ?

I also must correct a little my instruction - after point 4a I activate Alt-F1 for console and perform operations to enable SSH for ESX (you should find it here: http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_enable_SSH.php) and the rest operations i perform from simple putty ssh client.

But i think best method is to connect your server from Infrastructure Client then make changes as suggested by Dave.Mishchenko (by the way -thanks Dave it was probably working for me - "probably" because I also make my vi /bootbank/boot.cfg edit).

I was restarting my server three times today to be sure and its working. Also last 72 hours server is up and stable. I create Windows 2008 64bit guest successfully, also migrate Windows 2003/ISA 2006 guest directly to this ESX (about 4GB vhd in 33minutes) from Windows 2005 Virtual Server (vmc/vhd).

Everything working well.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

support@serial.ch — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:54:25 GMT

Hello,

I tried to install ESXi following your workaround :

1. Press Tab on very first screen of ESXi install ->OK

2. Move cursor just after first tgz filename and write "acpi=off" -> OK

3. press Enter and ESXi successfully install on DL160G5 ->OK

4. Be careful because after this setting is lost and problem appears again - solution:

a) disconnect HDD, connect to computer with Win XP, then edit boot.cfg on second partition and in second line set "kernelopt=acpi=off" ->Ok I used Knoppix to edit the boot.cfg on second partition.

b) after starting ESX go to console (Alt-F1, see also "unsupported" mode and "enable SSH in ESX" topics) type vi /bootbank/boot.cfg and set "kernelopt=acpi=off" -> NOK- the ESXi boot correctly no hang up on Enabling Interrupts but at the end when I launch the consol (alt F1) or go to customize system (F2) ESXi crash after few seconds and display a core dump containing Exception type 14... Chipset: 203: using mpsIntRouting/noACPI option, make sure it is on purpose...

I'm not able to find a solution to activate console before the esxi crash... for info we have the last version of the BIOS on our DL 160 G5, the one from 04/09/2008...

Any suggestion?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

ricky_italy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:19:36 GMT

I have difficulty installing vmware ESXi 3.5 build 110271 on a DL 160.
I have followed these steps:
1. Press Tab on very first screen of ESXi install
2. Move cursor just after first tgz filename and write "acpi = off"
3. press Enter and ESXi successfully install on DL160G5
then restart still hangs the system on "enabling interrupts"
How can I fix this?
Thank you

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:23:08 GMT

You can go to Configuration and then select Advanced Settings. Then look for VMkernel \ Boot and the apci option is first in the list. The change will be written to esx.conf and then to state.tgz when the host is shutdown or rebooted. Let me know if this works for you.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:25:32 GMT

Nope, but its interesting. Can you specify how to unchecking the option vmkernel.boot.acpi ?

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

Dave.Mishchenko — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:02:18 GMT

Have you tried this by unchecking the option vmkernel.boot.acpi instead of modifying boot.cfg.

One potential issue is that once you patch the system, you'll actually be booting from the 3rd partition.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

PNSRMPL — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:35:56 GMT

Hello to enable installing ESX on HP Proliant DL160 G5 you should:

1. Press Tab on very first screen of ESXi install

2. Move cursor just after first tgz filename and write "acpi=off"

3. press Enter and ESXi successfully install on DL160G5

4. Be careful because after this setting is lost and problem appears again - solution:

a) disconnect HDD, connect to computer with Win XP, then edit boot.cfg on second partition andin second line set "kernelopt=acpi=off"

b) after starting ESX go to console (Alt-F1, see also "usupported" mode and "enable SSH in ESX" topics) type vi /bootbank/boot.cfg and set "kernelopt=acpi=off"

This should solve problem permanently - I probably test it on monday if this problem cannot back.

Additional Comment:

I successfully Install and run Windows 2008 Server 64bit on my ESXi/DL160G5 config.

There are no problem with builtin network or storage controller - everything wotking fine. Must remember that ESX seen RAIDs defined on builtin SATA controller as individual disks.

Hope you find this solution usefull.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

malebolgia — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:57:58 GMT

Sadly no, I'm looking at a RedHat 5 + Xen solution now.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

CardConnection — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:54:18 GMT

Hello,
I was wondering if you ever got ESXi installed and running on your DL160 G5 as we are considering doing the same thing. Any first hand experience would be helpful before diving into this.

Re: Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

kjb007 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:21:44 GMT

I don't see the 160 on the HCL. http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_systems_guide.pdf

So, it doesn't look to be supported.

-KjB

Enabling Interrupts Preventing Install of ESXi?

malebolgia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:36:22 GMT

I'm using the evaluation version of ESXi, and attempting to install it on an HP ProLiant DL160 G5. At first all seems well, but then the ESXi installer gets stuck at this part:

Starting VMware ESX Server 3i: Enabling interrupts ...

I was wondering if you had any workarounds for this, or perhaps knew why this was happening?