I have a six-host ESXi 4.1 cluster running on Dell Poweredge R710's. They boot from a USB flash drive plugged into an internal USB port. I have done at least 12-20 installs on this same hardware without a problem.
When I try to re-install on one host from an ESXi 4.1 ISO via iDRAC, the installation fails while loading install.vgz with the error message: "Booting: MBI=0x000100c0, entry=0x0040024a".
I have researched both codes, and the only suggestion I get is that my hardware is not supported (specifically that my 32-bit processor is not supported). I don't have a 32-bit processor, so I know I can discount that. I have downloaded the VMware CPU compatibility ISO (file:///C:/Users/pguarco/Downloads/VMware-CPU-Compatibility-e.x.p-160658.zip), and my CPU meets all requirements. The host's previous ESXi installation crashed for unknown reasons, hence the re-install. It's possible there's a hardware issue. Any ideas on how to narrow this issue down?
you're doing the right thing. only thing i could thing is bad ISO, (please ensure the checksum is correct). and worse case updating PE's hardware firmware.
Have you attempted a reload with physical media? Also, have you tried another ISO, seems far fetched but you never know?
I tried another ISO, no luck. I also tried updating the iDRAC firmware, also no luck. I will be on-site tomorrow, I'll try a reload with physical media. Glad to see I'm not missing something totally obvious though
you're doing the right thing. only thing i could thing is bad ISO, (please ensure the checksum is correct). and worse case updating PE's hardware firmware.
Thanks for the advice. How do I ensure the checksum is correct?
in the download page, below each file it includes the checksum. copy those. then go google and get a tool that can calculate the file checksum and compare. i use hashtab for windows http://beeblebrox.org/ and the built in md5 checksum built natively in Mac OS.
Running a few core firmware updates using the USC to connect to Dell's FTP site fixed the problem. I was able to install ESXi 4.1 without issue following the updates. Thanks!
Just a note: I never did try reloading with physical media.