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labiol
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2012 02:02 AM

ESXi embedded lost usb sd flash card

I've got several esxi blade hosts. Every host is running on the same hardware. Every was installed on usb sd flash card placed in server. Reboot any of this host is not passible at this time.

The problem is on two hosts (ESXi 4.1.0 build 502767). ESXi doesn't see usb sd card (which is installed on).

fdisk -l on this hosts doesn't show sd card. On the helathy host fdisk -l show:

Disk /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0: 16.0 GB, 16022241280 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 15280 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

                           Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p1             5       900    917504    5  Extended
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p4   *         1         4      4080    4  FAT16 <32M
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p5             5       254    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p6           255       504    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p7           505       614    112624   fc  VMKcore
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0p8           615       900    292848    6  FAT16

whitch is corretcly.

I think, the consequence of this is why I can't download system log bundles (I get message: log bundle has not been generated) and I can't install vmtools on vm's (vmtools can't be found).

VM's (a lot vm's) are placed on this host and are running without problems (perhaps because that ESXi is loading to memory).

The question is, how can I diagnose this situation and will the system start up after reboot.


Greetings

Kris

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2 Replies
zXi_Gamer
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎06-13-2012 04:49 AM

Greetings..

The question is, how can I diagnose this situation and will the system start up after reboot.

I highly doubt that, since the USB has not been detected, chances are that, the system might not boot. I would recommend vmotioning the VMS to a healthy ESXi and start working on the prob to prevent any data loss.

Since, in only two servers you are facing this issue, it could be a chance of having a faulty USB. Also, just to confirm if the USB is present in the server or some one has removed it,.. can you list out the output of lsusb

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labiol
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-13-2012 11:48 PM

Little investigation.  lsusb output:  Bus 01 Device 02: ID 058f:6335 Alcor Micro Corp. SD/MMC Card Reader. So the esxi can see usb device. Additionally "df -h" show only visiorfs filesystem ( visorfs                   1.5G    519.2M      1.0G  33% /). On healthy host show:

df -h

visorfs                   1.5G    478.7M      1.1G  31% /
vfat                    249.7M    142.0M    107.8M  57% /vmfs/volumes/ff060de6-cecc88e5-4d14-8726d7ed0132
vfat                    249.7M    141.3M    108.4M  57% /vmfs/volumes/65092bef-de8a06b5-22db-2bbbc32dc3d2
vfat                    285.9M    142.8M    143.1M  50% /vmfs/volumes/3c3693e8-f77a642a-1910-5c6bdcb26d3a

So, the problem is that the additional vfat volumes are for some reason not visible.

How can I check/mount the additional vfat volumes without server restarting.

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