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wise123
Contributor
Contributor

“Failed to find boot partition" error

We try to install ESXI 4.0 to a Intel Board S5520HC with RAID 1 ( ASR-3805 Adaptec RAID ). The installation successfully detected the RAID and finished successfully. However, after installation, it reboots and stops with onscreen ‘Loading vFat’ then errors out with:

“Failed to find boot partition’

It installs successfully if we install without any raid configuration. But with RAID 1 or 5 it stops with “Failed to find boot partition’.

Adaptec 3805 is in the hardware compatibility list and I thought the driver is integrated with the esxi. Could you help me how to work out the “Failed to find boot partition’ error?

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krishnaprasad
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi, are you getting tech support mode after you see this failure? if yes, you may see the vmkernel log files in /var/log/ and it will have some info on why it failed. else check if you can go to ALT-F12 to see vmkernel logs. probably driver initialization ( adaptec ) may have failed for some reason.

If both these options doesnt work, it's worth to get serial logs from the failing system

Thanks,

Krishnaprasad

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wise123
Contributor
Contributor

After I press Alt+F12, the errors are as follows:

sysboot: Invalid Primary Boot Bank Detected: /vmfs/volumes/386a41e4-ff1587ba-138

sysboot: Executing 'vmkfstools -V'

sysboot: Invalid Primary Boot Bank Detected: /vmfs/volumes/386a41e4-ff1587ba-138

sysboot: Unable to detect USB boot partition. Retrying in 1 seconds

sysboot: Executing 'vmkfstools -V'

sysboot: Invalid Primary Boot Bank Detected: /vmfs/volumes/386a41e4-ff1587ba-138

sysboot: Unable to detect USB boot partition. Retrying in 2 seconds

...

sysboot: Executing 'vmkfstools -V'

sysboot: Invalid Primary Boot Bank Detected: /vmfs/volumes/386a41e4-ff1587ba-138

sysboot: Unable to detect USB boot partition. Retrying in 64 seconds

sysboot: Failed to find boot partition

sysboot: Executing 'esxcfg-init --alert Error: Failed to find boot partition'

0:00:01:09.556 cpu3:4707)ALERT:Error: Failed to find boot partition

sysboot: Executing 'chvt 1'

sysboot: 16.rootfs-scan returned critical failure

sysboot: Execute 'chvt 1"

I do not know how to get the /var/log/. Sorry I am new to vmware or linux.

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krishnaprasad
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

just to clarify... do you have any USB key with ESXi installed connected to the system other than Adaptec RAID LUN?

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wise123
Contributor
Contributor

No. I have no USB key connected to the server at all. That error message confuses me.

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krishnaprasad
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

ok.. you can see more vmkernel logs by doing "Page Up" in ALT-F12 screen. There check for "sysboot: storage-drivers ..." message. This is the place where storage drivers will start loading to vmkernel.

Probably there could be some errors in loading the driver.

Is it possible for you to collect serial logs during ESX bootup and upload it here?

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Borja_Mari
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

the symptoms you are talking about (esxi works without any type of RAID) remember me this kind of RAID controllers that really are a soft RAID disk controllers, not RAID hardware controllers.

Then IMHO maybe your disk controller doesn't work with esxi 4.0 in any RAID configuration. But the disk controller is listed in the vmware HCL list. Maybe is a faulty/buggy disk controller series. Try to upgrade (if possible) the disk controller firmware. Maybe this helps.

As a additional information about compatibilities guides, i would recommend you check this.

Regards/Saludos,

Pablo

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wise123
Contributor
Contributor

I have searched all the pages, it does not have "sysboot: storage-drivers ..." message, but

sysboot: Loading VMkernel Module /usb-storage'

and "usb-storage loaded successfully"

It looks like esxi 4.0 detect Adaptec RAID 3805 as a USB storage device.

I would like to collect serial logs and vmkernel logs and upload here. But honestly, I do not know how to collect it or how to have access to Adaptec RAID through 3rd party software. Please advice.

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wise123
Contributor
Contributor

Thank for your help. We do check in the official web link and notice Adaptec RAID 3805 is in the list and it is a software RAID.

And we did upgrade the both BIOS and firmware of the motherboard and RAID controller to the up-to-date version before we installed esxi.

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CraigJHCOPY
Contributor
Contributor

after reading a thousands pages and reinstalling many many times. I found the right combination. If I can find the thread again I will post a thank you. I have the adaptec 3805 and a unsupported supermicro box as support so politely informed me. Two bios settings were needed to avoid the failed to find boot partition. One was on the advance chip VT direct io needed to be disabled and the motherboard sata set to compatible(legacy)

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CraigJHCOPY
Contributor
Contributor

I have the adaptec 3805 and unsupported supermicro server as vmware support so kindly informed me. I had ESXI install successfully and then fail to find boot partition.I needed two bios changes. First, advance chipset control\Intel VT for directed I/O (VT-d) needed to be disabled and second the motherboard SATA needed to be set to compatible or enhance (ACHI is disabled but I did not test with this enabled.)

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michelle79
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am having the same trouble... all I did was use DRAC to connect a virtual CD image to update the BIOS (which didn't even happen anyway as the keyboard wasn't recognised) and upon reboot of the host it fails with the "Failed to find boot partition" error! I did not change a thing...

Can anyone help me get ESXi to boot from the SD card as it should please? Something has screwed up the boot order although the BIOS settings are completely fine - checked and double checked.

I have attached an image of the vmkernal log from the DRAC console.

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