ESXi 5.5. U1/2 hangs randomly at install time

[dxun]

I am trying to install ESXi 5.5 for two weeks now, have been plagued with ESXi 5.5 U1/U2 hanging at random stages for no apparent reason. I am driven mad with absence of any log or error hint whatsoever.

Random stages involved are:

- user loading successfully

- loading lgb

- loading lacp

- loading ipmi_si_drv

I could not discern any pattern between these occurences (I have reset the system at least 100 times).

I have a full console capture of one of these hangs here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFzFjyw9kBU

This crash's been captured with ignoreHeadless=TRUE flag passed.....without that flag, this step is successfully resolved but fails on "loading lgb...." step.....result is the same - just a blank screen and either it resets the physical machine or the machine must be manually restarted.

This has been captured with ESXi 5.5 U1 but same thing happens with U2. I am literally lost and cannot even begin to think what to do next.....any help is greatly appreciated

Hardware is given in video, but here it is again:

- SuperMicro X10SLM+-F

- 16 GB Crucial RAM ECC

- booting off of Sandisk Extreme 32GB USB stick (used Rufus to put the ISO on stick, using MBR and not using UEFI)

ignoreHeadless doesn't help.

The ignoreHeadless=TRUE flag used to help until I had decided to further lower the fan speed and did the following:

- used freeIpmi 1.3.4 to checkout fan settings and commit new ones (went without problems)

- since the fans wouldn't change their speed initially I tried to Load Optimized Defaults (that didn't help but I soon discovered I had to turn off/on power to motherboard fully until IPMI loaded the new settings)

So I currently suspect that one of these things "broke" ESXi install - even though I would find that incredible. Trying to load Factory IPMI defaults didn't do anything.

Any ideas or suggestions? I am beyond desperate at these point.

[vervoortjurgen]

hello

just some tips. i usualy update alle the firmware levels first from the server

also i always install with cd or throught remote iso mapping

i suggest you redownload an good image from vmware and burn to cd. I think somewhere using the USB to iso tool went wrong.

also you want to run vmware from USB stick? or just the installation cd on it?

also update 2 is out since 9 september 2014 so look on the vmware site if your server is supported

dont know if this is any helpfull.

good luck

[dxun · Accepted solution]

So after much fussing around and hair pulling, I must admit I had accidentally stumbled upon the solution.

The issue I was having was not the odd hardware or some technical failure (RAM sticks are healthy and removing them or disabling LAN did nothing to help) - it was the fact that I was trying to install ESXi host without and SATA disks attached at all. As soon as I attached the SATA drive I just happened to have handy, everything worked flawlessly.

This was a completely accidental discovery - in a particular moment of desperation, I tried to run CentOS 7 install ISO in an effort to install and boot it from USB flash drive (hopefully to go even deeper and do additional diagnostics). It failed with exactly the same symptoms as the ESXi except - it threw a message akin to "no controller attached". That immediately got my attention as this is the latest stable and server-grade free distribution that isn't supposed have to have any issues. Therefore it must be the kernel itself (which is probably the only thing ESXi distro and CentOS7 have in common) is behaving erratically when no SATA drives are connected. Helped by the message (which was lacking from ESXi efforts), I connected the HDD and - lo and behold - everything ran without a hitch.

My conclusion is this: for the reasons that escape me, it seems (stock?) Linux kernel is having major issues being installed on a system without SATA disk attached. Is it just this is manifesting in this fashion with only this particular motherboard or some other hardware component? I have no idea and did not want to test it any further - I am just glad it works right now.

On a personal note, I've been working with computers for the past 25 years and this has to be one of the top 5 bizzare/wtf moments I have ever had.

HTH someone.