Failed ESXi install on UCS B200M2

[robin99]

I have mapped the ESXi ISO image into the KVM virtual media and the VM installation always failed with message
Unable to load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vmfs3: Failure"

I use the image downloaded from VMware with filename "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-4.1.0.update1-348481.x86_64.iso".

Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks

[robin99]

Have got the answer from google. I need to download the Cisco customized ESXi ISO image. All good now.

[Robert Burns]

All hail the mighty Google!

Let us know if you need any other assistance Robin.

Regards,

Robert

[PAUL GILBERT ARIAS]

Robin, we are also having problems loading ESXi 4.1 to our B200. We are getting the following error" This system does not have a network interface card that is plugged in, or all network interface cards are already claimed. Installation cannot continue as requested"

We are using the Cisco customized ESXi ISO image. We are trying to install it using a USB drive instead of mapping it.

Any idea on how to solve the issue and be able to install it?

Did you had to do anything on the UCS Manager?

[Jeremy Waldrop]

What mezzanine card do you have? I have installed ESXi 4.1 on countless B200/230/250 blades and have only ever used the default VMware ESXi ISO.

I have never had any problems using the default ESXi ISO but I have only ever used the M81KR (PALO VIC) mezzanine and a few with the gen 1 Qlogic/Emulex mezzanine M71KRs

[DAVE GENTON]

I have seen issues in the field with installing the standard vmware image vs. the cisco oem version, but honestly ONLY on servers with the VIC card, and are also booting from SAN, both must be met here, otherwise I've installed most every image there, windows with VIC usually needs driver disk, 2003 for sure, that's it....

[Jeremy Waldrop]

That is weird because 99% of my ESXi 4.1 installs have been boot from SAN with the VIC. The other 1% were before the VIC came out and we had to use the GEN1 M71KRs. I have never used the Cisco OEM ISO only the VMware one.

[robin99]

I wonder if Cisco has this detail since we have different experiences when installing the VMWare ISO. In my other projects I use M81KR and the standard VMware ISO only. This time I used M72KR-Q with customized Cisco ISO. 

[DAVE GENTON]

They do, they saw it here today, but I have pointed it out and shown their engineers in the past.  It appears that inconsistency is going away as most blades are all shipping with same bios all, I've had 2 b200m1's arrive with different bios vendors, now they're all cisco consistenly and I can boot either image with the vic card as well.

[lwatta · Accepted solution]

Sorry took me a while to find the email.

So here's the deal with the Cisco Specific ISO for ESXi.

You use the Cisco specific ESXi image if you are installing ESXi on the following

1. UCS B230 local disk. The standard 4.1 image does not have the correct LSI driver. If you are doing SAN boot with Palo you are fine.

2. If you are using any GEN2 CNAs (Emulex and Qlogic). This is true regardless of which blade you are installing ESXi on.

According to the internal email I'm looking at these drivers did not make the 4.1U1 image but should be in the 4.1U2 and 4.0U3.

So based of the replies above about what worked and what didn't with which hardware I'd say the info from the email is correct.

[Jeremy Waldrop]

That explains a lot, 100% of our customers are boot from SAN with the VIC mezzanine. Thanks for the clarification

[DAVE GENTON]

I have NEVER seen that, but I dont understand why you dont use the virtual media mapping via KVM, that's what it is for.  Shall you be forced into using the USB for CD/DVD, make sure it's in your bios boot order and check the bios USB settings as well.  I often see the front panel usb disabled, and/or it's locked out from being a bootable device to the server.  Check those settings and I am sure you'll be fine....it's one or the other, or combination I'm certain.

[PAUL GILBERT ARIAS]

we were able to solve the issue by mapping the ISO from the PC not from the USB. Thanks for the help.

[DAVE GENTON]

That is the intended use, you CANNOT map it from that USB, nor can you map it from anywhere but from your local pc the KVM session is on.  So that said we commonly have a shared drive in the data center full of iso's and we can remotely map that as a drive on our laptop, then map virtual media to it that way and it's actually local to the remote ucs server in the data center 1000 miles away.  Front USB panel is ONLY for booting a bootable cd-rom by attaching a cd to the provided dongle.  Since that option exists there is a corresponding BIOS setting for front panel usb for performance as well as lockout, and whether it's bootable or not.  Set BIOS to bootable, configure boot order with cd-rom first and it will then boot from it, but you cannot map to it, it's just a usb connection, no networking logic or magic there.