Server does not boot ESXi after installation from bootable USB drive

[gwiesenekker]

Hi,

I installed VMware ESXi 5 on an SSD drive using a bootable USB stick, but my server does not boot automatically from the SSD drive after installation. I can boot ESXi from the boot menu offered by the BIOS.

Perhaps the boot configuration is wrong because during installation the USB drive is present, but after installation it is not?

Has anyone else seen this problem?

Regards,

Gijsbert

[a_p_]

I can boot ESXi from the boot menu offered by the BIOS

In this case the installation should not be the issue. Can you confirm the BIOS settings allow the system to boot automatically from the SSD?

What happens when you start the system? Does it hang or try to PXE boot?

André

[gwiesenekker]

Hi André,

Yes, the BIOS settings allow the server to  boot automatically from the SSD drive.  The BIOS does boot automatically  from a regular hard disk running CentOS, so  it looks like the BIOS  does not detect that the SSD is bootable. I will  now install ESXi from  the bootable USB stick to a regular hard disk to check if the BIOS is indeed the root cause.

Regards,

Gijsbert

[a_p_]

Only to understand your setup.

The BIOS does boot automatically  from a regular hard disk running  CentOS, so  it looks like the BIOS  does not detect that the SSD is  bootable

Does this mean you have multiple HDDs/SSDs (simultaneously) in the system? In this case the boot order and or the active partition may need to be adjusted!?

André

[gwiesenekker]

Hi André,

No, I only have one bootable drive connected.

Regards,

Gijsbert

[gwiesenekker]

Hi,

I reinstalled ESXi on a regular hard drive both from a USB stick and from a CDROM drive, and in both cases the server does not boot ESXi automatcally from the regular hard drive.

Any suggestions how to troubeshoot this? Is it an ESXi issue or a BIOS issue?

Regards,

Gijsbert

[a_p_]

Since you said that booting from the boot menu works, I'd suggest you check whether there's an issue with partitioning (e.g. active partition not set correctly). You can do this by booting from e.g. a gparted live CD. What kind of disk controller do you have in your system and how is it configured? Maybe the ESXi installation has issues setting up the partition table correctly!?

André

[gwiesenekker]

Hi André,

I booted from a CentOS LiveCD and parted showed the first partition is marked as bootable. It also showed that it is a GPT partition table. A Google search on 'set gpt partition active' returned the following article:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html

It says:

'Some Intel BIOSes (and perhaps others) require that at least one hard disk have at least one MBR partition that's marked as bootable/active. Since the protective MBR's single EFI GPT (0xEE) partition is not normally flagged in this way, the affected BIOSes won't boot from GPT disks.'

As suggested by this article I toggled the boot flag of the GPT partition by booting from a CentOS LiveCD and using fdisk. At least the server now started to boot from the SSD drive, but I got the 'BANK5: not a VMware boot bank' error, so it looks like the root cause is the Intel BIOS of my DQ77MK motherboard.

Regards,

Gijsbert

[a_p_]

Do you have an ESXi 4.x installation CD? In this case you may try to workaround this issue by first installing ESXi 4.x (which uses MBR) and then use the ESXi 5.0 CD to upgrade. This will leave the MBR untouched and you should be able to boot without issues.

André

[gwiesenekker]

Hi André,

I reviewed the BIOS for settings related to EFI, and there was a 'UEFI Boot' option in the Boot menu. It was disabled. I enabled it and now the server boots!

Thanks,

Gijsbert

[a_p_]

Glad to hear you found the solution to your issue and thanks for the feedback.

André

PS: I marked the discussion as assumed answered.

[gwiesenekker]

Hi André,

Unfortunately the boot now hung on 'Initializing ACPI'. Reinstalling ESXi on the SSD drive with the UEFI setting enabled in the BIOS did not help. As booting from the USB key with the ESXi 5 installer did not hang on 'Initializing ACPI' I installed ESXi on another USB key, and NOW ESXi boots automatically.

Regards,

Gijsbert

[seetee · Accepted solution]

Update the BIOS on the DQ77MK to 49 and you should be able to boot - ensure that UEFI is kept enabled.

[gwiesenekker]

You are right, BIOS update 0049 fixes this issue.

Thanks,

Gijsbert

[philip8]

Hello,

Thank you all for this discussion.

Enable UEFI in the BIOS was the solution for boot problems.

I have 2 pc's with Intel DZ68DB board.

With ESXi 4, booting after a PXE installation wasn't any problem.

When installing ESXi 5, the server didn't boot from the local disk. Entering the (bios) boot-menu, and choose booting from local disk, made the server boot from local disk, but without using the boot-menu, it did not.

Changing the UEFI option in the BIOS from disable to enable, solved my problem. It's booting ESXi 5 from local disk.

Kind regards,

Philip