04-25-2025 04:01 AM
Hello together,
i try to change the boot order from legacy to uefi on a vmware esxi that is booting from SAN.
First try, just change the boot order to uefi. Server boots into bios
Second try, change th uefi boot parameter to the following value
Boot Loader Name: BOOTX64.EFI
Boot Loader Path: \EFI\Boot\
Same problem. Boot into bios.
Third try, update esxi while uefi is configured. Booting from cd, updating esxi. booting normal. Same issue. Booting into bios.
What else can i try to configure uefi boot?
Thanks for any hints
Frank
04-25-2025 05:30 AM - edited 04-25-2025 05:33 AM
hi Frank
1 Which ESXi version?
2 Which server model & CPU?
3 UCSM (domain connected) or CIMC standalone?
4 Service Profile managed by UCS Manager or UCS Central?
CSCuh13333 No boot item added in F6 boot menu for the new installed esxi OS contains commands to manually boot into ESXi if you boot into UEFI shell. E.g. if this works it may mean an issue with the boot entry.
If you have not found/followed Troubleshooting Boot From San Installation - Cisco Community yet, please have a look.
04-25-2025 05:51 AM
ESXi Version8
It is an old B200 M3 that i am using for testing before changing production
UCSM connected but not UCS Central
Frank
04-25-2025 10:49 AM
I don't think you are going to get an M3 server to boot ESXi 8. I don't think the CPU's are compatible. I know my M5's support ESXi 8. I am trying to remember if M4's support ESXi 8, but I don't recall. I upgrade mine a couple years ago.
04-27-2025 04:53 AM - edited 04-27-2025 04:53 AM
I would agree with Elliot.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/318697/cpu-support-deprecation-and-discontinuat.html lists the E5-2600 series of CPUs that the M3s( https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/B200M3_SpecSheet.pdf ) would have had.
Kirk...
04-27-2025 10:39 PM
Hello Elliot,
i know that it is not supported. But it is working. you can get an m3 to boot with esx8. But you cannot boot from local disk because the controller is not supported. But we are booting from SAN.
Frank
04-27-2025 10:01 AM
I am surprised that you were able to install ESXi 8.0 on an M3 (unless you used some of the options to override the checks as per https://vinfrastructure.it/2025/01/installing-esxi-8-with-an-unsupported-cpu/). ESXi 8.0 is only supported on M5 and up as per the Cisco UCS HCL but I have seen it upgrade on M4.
Do you have a spare M5 blade? If so, could you associate the M5 with the SP that you upgraded?
04-27-2025 10:41 PM
I have a lot of old M3 which i can do some testing on. And yes, The CPU and also the local SCSI Controller are not supported. You are not able to boot from local disks.
I will try some more things out this week.
Frank
04-30-2025 12:43 AM
Are you able to test switching from legacy BIOS to UEFI on an M3 before upgrading to ESXi 8.0?
According to Broadcom KB Deprecation of legacy BIOS support in vSphere
04-30-2025 01:17 AM
Hello Riaan,
no. I did not test that. And all my old servers are on 8 now. I have testet serval things this week. But so far i was not able to boot from uefi san. Legacy is still working.
Frank
04-30-2025 04:17 AM - edited 04-30-2025 04:22 AM
Since 8.0 on M3 is an unsupported configuration, why would you want to switch to UEFI? Why not just leave it on Legacy BIOS?
To give you an example - we have M5 blades running Legacy BIOS. Even though 8.0 is supported on M5, 8.0 only supports UEFI. When changing boot mode from Legacy BIOS to UEFI, (before or after upgrading from 7.0 to 8.0), on some of our M5 blades, vNICs and vHBAs reorder. We did extensive testing and wrote commands to bulk rename the vNICs device in ESXi to the versions that ESXi refreshed, and in the end, due to the work required and our upgrade timelines, decided to stay on Legacy BIOS. (We can always switch to UEFI later, should running in Legacy BIOS mode become a supportability issue).
04-30-2025 04:51 AM
I just wan´t to know how i have to do it. Because when the day come that i have to change from legacy to uefi and do not know how to do it, it´s bad i guess.
And the new VMware Lifecycle Manager also show that it will be not supported in future releases. Thats in preperation of Version 9.
Therefor, i wan´t to know what steps i have to do to switch to uefi. But it looks like it is not only changing the boot policy.
Frank
05-07-2025 06:09 AM
You are doing everything right (based on my experience with UEFI)
Unfortunately, there are a number of things that work against you
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