Error Installing ESXi on Blades SD card

[RyanMRush]

I have seen posts on this but nothing recent. I am installing ESXi 5.5 on an SD Card for a HP PRoliant BL460 blade server. I have connected to the Blade Via ILO and attached the ESXi CD to ILO. I boot off the CD just fine and it recognizes the Flash card but it wont make it past 5% installing before getting this error:

I have researched the "Failed to resolve path name" and Device path name "...." is not a valid absolute path but I cannot seem to find a fix for this situation.

I have tried completely wiping the SD card and deleting all partitions and also purchased several new SD cards that also get the same error.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you

[a_p_]

Just a quick question. Which BL460c blade server generation do you use, and did you try the installation with the HP customized ESXi image yet?

André

[RyanMRush]

These are G7 versions and no I have not tried the HP customized image yet. Is that on the HP site or VMWARE?

[a_p_]

You can download the HP OEM from the VMware web site. There's a tab for custom images in the download section.

André

[RyanMRush]

Just to confirm I have tried to versions of the ESXi HP Custom image and still I get the same error.

[RyanMRush]

Update 2:

I have now tried the HP custom images on two different blades trying to install ESXi on the SD cards and they both run into the same error. I have done this with ease before and all of a sudden I cant now. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[continuum]

Can you wipe the sd cards before you try again ?

[RyanMRush]

The SD cards were wiped and show no partitions. Still does not work? Is there another way just to install ESXi on the SD cards and drop it in the server?

[BRumer0]

I have had similar issues in the past.

The resolution for me was to remove any hard drives on the server. There is something about how the installer extracts the installer's temp files and when the physical hard drives are present it screws up the install. So pop out the hard drives for the install to the SD card, then when the installer finishes you can put them back in. I have found that the error is not consistent; I dont know why sometimes this occurs and other times it doesn't.

[RyanMRush]

Update 3

I have tested with NO hard drives inserted with the same error.

I did however try this same process on installing ESXi on the same SD card in a HP DL360 G7 and it worked like a charm.

I am starting to think that there is something in the bios of the BL460 that is causing it to fail but as far as what, I do not know.

[virtualosa]

I've had a similar problem in the past with those blades, I don't remember exactly what the setting was that I had to change, but I think it was along the lines of disabling support for USB3. Have you looked into that? I remember I worked with HP support for quite a while to get it working, but unfortunately don't have those notes anymore.

[BRumer0]

I doubt its the case, but any chance its not an SDHC card? SDXC or SDHCI, etc might not work in the G7s.

In my Cisco UCS B200M4 blades, I have to format them off-box prior to usage (there is actually a very involved process to do it within UCS, which I wont talk about here). Again, I doubt this is the case with HP, but its worth mentioning as a remote possibility.

[douglasarcidino]

I just installed vSphere 6 to three BL460c G7 blades on 8GB SD cards yesterday using the HP image. It's either your SD card or the SD slot. Can you try installing an 8GB USB drive on the internal USB header and see if that installs fine?

Doug

[unsichtbare]

I install ESXi on SD media /HP Blades all the time.

My suggestion is make the flash media first in the boot order and disable the P400i Smart Array controller. Also use media with 16GB or more (per VMware recommendation)

[dkintsat]

On your B200M4's, what is the process that you use to get the SD cards wiped?  I have gone through the scrub/no scrub policy and formatted the SD cards from the Equipment tab, but I still cannot get the blades to boot correctly.

[douglasarcidino]

Can you try this?

Boot into option menu using vSphere ESXi installation media

Press Shift + O at the boot to install media splash screen.

You should see where it says "runweasel" at the bottom of the screen. Press Space and then enter formatwithmbr. Your command should read "runweasel formatwithmbr" without the quotes.

Hit enter and then install as normal.

I know that as far back as the Cisco M3 blades, the internal SD cards were "not supported" and this could be why.