VMware ESXi 4.0 on Dell R710, Solaris 10 guest OS slow boot

[vbeshev]

Server: Dell R710, BIOS version 1.2.6

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5520 @2.27GHz

RAM: 32GB

VMware ESXi 4.0.0 Releasebuild-171294

Problem:

when booting Solaris 10 Update8 64bit guest OS, after the GRUB loader option selected, the system sleeps for about 2 minutes, then the Solaris starts to boot. During this "sleep" time, the virtual machine uses high amount of CPU resources (one CPU core at 100%). During the Solaris boot, the following warnings are received:

================================

NOTICE: cmi_hdl_create: chipid 0 coreid 0 strandid 0 handle already allocated!

WARNING: There will be no MCA support on chip 0 core 0 strand 0 (cmi_hdl_create returned NULL)

NOTICE: cmi_hdl_create: chipid 0 coreid 1 strandid 0 handle already allocated!

WARNING: There will be no MCA support on chip 0 core 1 strand 0 (cmi_hdl_create returned NULL)

================================

There is no problem when running Solaris in 32bit mode. Copied the virtual machine on a different server (SGI) with the same version of VMware, and none of the above problems appeared.

Anyone have any idea?

[DSTAVERT]

A quick search at the SUN wiki returned

http://wikis.sun.com/display/BigAdmin/IBMx3850M2InstallationWorkaround

[vbeshev]

Thanks!

That fixed the "(cmi_hdl_create returned NULL)" issue, but the 2 minutes delay between GRUB and boot issue is still present.

[DSTAVERT]

I would go through the Knowledgebase and see if anything jumps out.

Have a look at http://blogs.vmware.com/guestosguide/

Solaris 10 /8 notes

[jb12345]

Is there a menu.lst ? Check to see if there is a line timeout=120 If so change it to a lower value.

[RennyRamone]

That fixed the "(cmi_hdl_create returned NULL)" issue, but the 2 minutes delay between GRUB and boot issue is still present.

Hi, I just telephoned with a techie and he said "Yes, this is not nice, but quite normal. In this time

the server normally checks all it's hardware, like the boot messaged you see at a Linux".

Hmm, I thought, sure that sounds reasonable and I know these messages from "real" Sun servers,

like V880, Mx000 and so on, you see all the POST messages while you're on console.

And my Solaris 10 vm prints no messages but just the finished boot screen and my login prompt.

Maybe there's a way to see the boot messages, but I am not quite sure if Solaris 10 x86 post any.

Cheers

Renny

[laszlo_laszlo]

Maybe there's a way to see the boot messages, but I am not quite sure if Solaris 10 x86 post any.

Try -v option. When you see the grub boot menu, press Tab and edit the second line. Put -v option at the end of the line. With -v boot option you get verbose boot messages.