ESX 3.5 Update 3 installs, but won't boot (IBM x3650)

[Dan_Willis]

Hi all,

Got a weird one here - I have three of the above here with twin intel XEON x5450s installed. I've installed ESX U3 and that goes fine - however, on first boot it appears to hang whilst trying to initilise the scheduler and after a long wait it fails to boot the vmkernel and drops me to a # prompt.

Booting to the SC only works and booting to the debug option PSODs with:

0:00:00:00.548 cpu 4:1028)SMP:slaveidle:209 AP 4 prevented from starting

0:00:00:00.476 cpu 0:1024)SMP:bootAPs:1729 could not start pcpu 4

0:00:00:00.800 cpu 0:1024)Init:vmkernel:759 SMP_BootAPs failed:0xbad0001

I've tried a couple of builds without success (and done the usual BIOS updates).

What IS surprising is that if I take one CPU package out of the server, it boots fine - without complaint. So is ESX playing up or the server hardware?

Anyone come across this? It's driving me insane!

Dan

PS - added attached file with dmesg details for these builds

[admin · Accepted solution]

Check out this link, and my fix - the CPU's and pads may have oxidized. took me 2 days to work it out it - did you get kudzo too?

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1110296

www.fritzyboi.com

[Dan_Willis]

Hi,

Thanks for that - I'll have a go this morning and see if it'll work. I have

the same error (from your screenshot) so it'd be great if that works!

Dan

[wallboy_]

I had a simlar problem with a system randomly PSOD'ing. This was also found to be a CPU not installed correctly with enougth heat compound.

[Dan_Willis]

Cheers guys - swapping the CPUs (as per thread) worked. Nothing about them seemed any different but obviously that isn't the case in reality. Still, it works!

Thanks.

[stephenwhite]

Many thanks it 12 midnight here and i couldnt figure this out can't call vmware as after hours got to love the internet !

ESX 3.5 Update 3 installs

on a IBM 3650 MODEL 7979 PURCHASED 2/14/2009

Same as you guys experanced

2 DUAL CORE XEONS SAME ISSUE Swaping cpu's fixed it wonderful thanks guys !

[JohnnyLundgren]

And the cpu-swap helped me too.

In my case the second cpu came in a separate package, the first one was already installed.

Regards,

Johnny Lundgren

[ajames]

I had the exact same errors and symptoms but the processor swap did not work for me. After much searching it turned out to be a USB KVM connector. Once I pulled that out, the server booted fine. Hope this saves someone else much wasted time.

Adrian