7.0U1 - Windows boot issues after upgrading hw version to 18

[vmmpa]

Hi,

after upgrading ESXi to 7.0U1 and VMs to hardware version 17->18, my Windows

VMs refuse to boot. (independently if i use Paravirtualized, Lsi SAS, NVMe). More

than that, if i try to install a new Windows VM via ISO

- i have no mouse pointer

- the install screen only appears with Paravirtualized controller (but cannot find disk

  of course)

- the spinning loading circle loads forever with Lsi SAS, so this seems to

  be the same behavior as with an existing VM

Long story short. If i create a new VM with the old virtualHW.version = "17",

everything works as expected (Lsi SAS, mouse pointer)

Is anyone seeing the same?

[Alexx69rus]

I have the same problem

[vmmpa]

Didn't have time to debug this further, but my latest tests today show always the same

error message in /path/to/storage/testwin/vmware.log when the Win10 installation setup

starts (spinning circle)

2020-10-30T10:11:59.300Z| vcpu-0| I005: LSI: Invalid PageType [21] pageNo 0 Action 0

2020-10-30T10:12:43.191Z| vcpu-0| I005: LSI: Invalid PageType [21] pageNo 0 Action 0

2020-10-30T10:12:57.440Z| vmx| I005: MKSVMX: Vigor requested a screenshot

2020-10-30T10:12:57.440Z| svga| I005: MKSScreenShotMgr: Taking a screenshot

2020-10-30T10:13:27.067Z| vcpu-0| I005: LSI: Invalid PageType [21] pageNo 0 Action 0

....

I don't see this message on any other system i have, whether i use

* LSI Logic SAS

* LSI Logic Parallel

* Paravirtual

and also independently of the HW version. So - at least here - it's related to the

combination of Windows + HW version 18

[vmmpa]

Is really nobody facing this issue?

I had access to a second ESXi running 7.0U1b but with different hardware and neither booting the windows 10 installation iso, nor starting an already installed machine works, when the HW version is set to 7.0 U1 = 18

[vmmpa]

After giving this a shot once again, i've found the reason why HW18 won't boot with my Win10 systems + why a fresh install won't work.

I've always enabled VBS (on existing systems/newly created), which sets the following values to TRUE

uefi.secureBoot.enabled = "TRUE"
vhv.enable = "TRUE"
vvtd.enable = "TRUE"  (IOMMU)
windows.vbs.enabled = "TRUE"

But only the vvtd.enable flag is the reason it doesn't boot. As soon as i set this to FALSE (or don't enable VBS at all), booting an existing VM + installing from an ISO works without issues.

[GabGo]

Hello,

we have the same problem as we migrating our Windows 10 (21H2) VMs from Intel to AMD hosts. The issue starts with the June 22 Preview Windows Update (KB5014023) and VBS enabled in Windows which leads to a BSOD on booting. If we disable IOMMU these VMs are starting fine.

On which hardware is or was your ESX running? We are currently investigate this issue with our hardware vendor and VMware.

Here is my post for reference: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-vSphere-Discussions/Bluescreen-booting-Windows-VM-with-late...