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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

Cannot boot from ESXi 7.0

Hi,

I tried to do a clean 7.0 install the first time and couldn`t boot after installation, the bios couln`t see the disk as bootable.

So I decided to install 6.7u3b and do an upgrade after but the problem still persist, I could boot fine uner 6.7 but as soon as I upgraded to 7.0 the disk was not bootable anymore.

No warnings during installation.

Any help will be very appreciated.

Thanks.

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12 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Welcome to the Community,

Are you using officially supported hardware (see http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl), or are you trying to setup ESXi on a white box?

Please provide details about the hardware that you are using, e.g. server vendor/model, RAID controller, RAID configuration, ...

André

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

The system is a Dell T7610 with an LSI 2308 raid controller, raid is not configured and all disks are standalone.

ESX did complain at first for the LSI drivers but after updating the firmware to the latest version everything went fine.

Thanks for answering.

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

I found it weird that it destroys the boot partition when upgrading from a working one. 

For a new install I can understand but an upgrade ?

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

I made a test installing to a USB drive, same thing is happening.

Install is fine from 6.7 booting etc...

But as soon as I upgrade to 7.0 the USB drive is unusable.

Any help will be very appreciated.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

What I think may be worth a try is to install ESXi with formatting the disk with MBR rather than GPT, in case your host doesn't support this.

I didn't try this with ESXi 7.0, but in the past this could be achieved by pressing "Ctrl-O" right after starting the installer, and appending formatwithmbr to the boot options.

André

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

The host does indeed supports gpt because the 6.7 version installed is using this.

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

Well I think I'll install 6.7 and 7.0 on different usb drives and compare the two.

Maybe that'll give me a clue of what's happening.

NickFennell
Contributor
Contributor

pretty sure I just hit a similar issue. Upgraded from 6.7 to 7.0 via USBboot. Upgrade process ran and seemed to complete without issue.

Removed the upgrade USB stick, rebooted, couldn't find the original boot device. No UEFI options registered or selectable from UEFI boot.


If I stick the upgrade USB stick back in - it boots from that and I can select the boot program from UEFI options.

Checking the original upgraded USB drive shows a file system with contents but is not bootable.

Just reinstalled v6.7U3 without issue.

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

I did a reinstall with the 7.0b ISO hoping that the boot problem was solved but I was wrong.

Anyway I switched to Proxmox and this one is working without issues.

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IRIX201110141
Champion
Champion

The LSI SAS2308 is not on the HCL for 7.0 so iam not surprised that you didnt got it working.   For sure it works under 6.7u3.

Regards,

Joerg

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todarivah
Contributor
Contributor

I doubt it is the controller, it doesn't even boot on a USB drive installation.

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khiregange
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

It looks like the LSI SAS2308 is not supported for esxi 7.0

VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search

Esxi 7 is not tested with the workstation model Dell T7610 @todarivah