Failed ESXi 5.0 to 5.1a. Purple screen: Boot Image is corrupted.

[capriguy84]

Hi,

I tried to upgrade our ESXi 5.0 host on a Dell R610 to 5.1 using Update Manager. I get below purple screen

Error message: The system has found a problem on your machine and canot continue.

Could not load multiboot module: Boot Image is corrupted.

These are the steps I followed:

Step 1) Upgraded vCenter to 5.1 and added hosts to be managed.

Step 2) Downloaded ESXi 5.1.0a ISO CD and imported to Update manager as Baseline.

Step 3) Remediated the baseline and it proceeded fine til 25% before getting disconnected.

Step 4) After loggint to LOM i see attached purple screen

Any ideas?

We do not have Support contract and not sure If I should buy a support per incident for this.

[grasshopper]

Are you able to boot your host after power cycling? If not have you tried reverting to your working configuration with SHIFT+R at the ESXi boot menu?

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1033604

[capriguy84]

I tried rolling back but got below message. Strange I thought the problem was booting to  v5.1.0a as shown in purple screen.

How can I switch to Hypervisor 1?

Installed HyperVisors:

Hypervisor 1: 5.0.0-469512

Hypervisor 2: 4.1.0-348481 (Default)

Current Default Hypervisor will be replaced permanently.

Do you really want to rollback?

Bank6: boot state not found

System has failed to roll back

Any ideas how to boot to the 5.0.0 hypervisor? How can I switch?

[grasshopper]

If this was a 5.0 to 5.1 upgrade, those versions listed at the boot menu look questionable (5.0 and 4.1).  The PSoD does make reference to problems with the boot bank so it probably makes sense that the roll back feature is not functioning.  I would ensure that the host is booting to the correct device (i.e. not a test USB stick, etc.).

This will probably be a rebuild at minimum or a support case if that's not an option.

[capriguy84]

I am going to do a fresh install.

Btw, Is it possible to import a host profile from a 2nd host which is currently at vSphere 5.0.0? I would like to keep the configuration identical and also reduce manual work.

[grasshopper]

Absolutely, Host Profiles are the way to go if you are licensed for it.  You may want to create a new host profile and/or change the reference host by right clicking the desired profile (Home > Host Profiles) and attach it to the cluster.  Then from the Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters view, select the desired cluster in the left pane and navigate to the Host Profiles tab to appy and check compliance.  If you need more info let us know.

[gbhorne]

Yes, Grasshopper. Thats the way to go! Totally agree!

[gbhorne]

If you moved that image from elsewhere then yes it is possibly corrupted. that happens sometimes. I haven't been able to figure out why yet. Rest assured when I do I'll post. Just try to mount the original ISO again.

[smusikavanhu]

I had almost a similar error when i was installing ESXi 5.5 on Dell R420. It was actually funny how i cracked it, i just installed the Dell ESXi 5.5 software and it worked.

Good luck and i hope this will help.

Simbarashe