Crashed SD card in ESXi 6.5 - Change from SD to USB for installation possible?

[shetrading]

Hi folks,

we're using a HP Proliant DL380 Gen8 with a RAID-5 (4 x 300 GB HDD SAS). There are four virtual maschines and ESXi 6.5 is installed in a SD card. Unfortunately I got the message that the SD card isn't accessible any longer (message in HP iLO log and vCenter: Verbindung zum Gerät mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0, welches das Boot-Dateisystem /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0 unterstützt, ging verloren).

The plan now is to shut down the 4 VM's, set the host into maintenance mode and save the host configuration  ( Get-VMHostFirmware -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath 'D:\temp\'). After that I will replace the SD card inside the server, re-install ESXi 6.5 and restore the host configuration.

But due to the fact the SD card is inside the Proliant which has to be removed from the rack and opened it's just easier to use an USB drive instead.

My Question: does the configuration work if I will replace the boot device (SD card => USB) with the some configuration or not?

Thank you.

[SCMHenry]

You may be able to workaround this by performing a cold reboot of the affected host.  It would be interesting to try this after you have saved the current config, before you attempt to reinstall.

I have experienced similar issues with the Dual-SD/USB device that HP offers with the Gen9 machines.  I worked with HP support to try to find a solution to no avail.

In the end, I am swapping out the dual-SD/USB devices for a single 8GB USB kit where the problem recurs.

[rwk1982]

Well... ESXi + SD Cards + HP ProLiant Gen8 Server is ehm... not the best combination. Take a look at this Advisory: HPE Support document - HPE Support Center‌

What i did:

1. Shutdown the ESXi

2. Update iLO to 2.50

3. Format NAND Flash:

3a. Create a "c:\temp\nandflash.xml" with the Content:

<RIBCL VERSION="2.0">

<LOGIN USER_LOGIN="Administrator" PASSWORD="">

<RIB_INFO MODE="write">

<FORCE_FORMAT VALUE="all" />

</RIB_INFO>

</LOGIN>

</RIBCL>

3b. Download and Install the "HP Lights-Out Configuration Utility": Drivers & Software - HPE Support Center.

3c. run:

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Hewlett-Packard\HP Lights-Out Configuration Utility\hpqlocfg.exe" -s -f c:\temp\nandflash.xml -v -t user=YouriLOAdminUser,password=YouriLOAdminPassword

After that, your iLO will reset itself, recreate the NAND Partition and the SD Card should come back to Life... should

4. Reinstall Intelligent Provisioning if needed: https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_88d08b2acdd840ac8a65686e2a

[Boloo]

It should work.

We had same issues with dell internal SDCard, and we decided to have the USB as a secondary device to boot from it if the SD fails.

[shetrading · Accepted solution]

Kisses and big hugs to all!

An update of iLO to the newest version and a cold reboot has finally done the job! No annoying SD card exchange nor ESXi re-installation. I'm thankful!