Problem; ESX 5u1, iSCSI boot to NetApp

[jnordsving]

The problem we are seeing is;  VMware 5u1, same on 5 is getting about 90% thru the install/copying of VMware on an 8GB LUN (lun id 0)  ...fails with  message  "Expecting 2 boot banks,  found 0"  

HW configuration as follows;

FIs  6248

B-200 Blades

Palo VIC  M81KR

Configured "Appliance Ports" connecting to NetApp 3240  -10GB e1a/e1b

Firmware 2.0.2M

Service Profile

iSCSI boot policy  (cdrom, iSCSI overlay nic)  NO MAC assigned

iSCSI boot vNIC,  fabric a  -no failover,  vLAN 550

iSCSI_A  vNIC,   no failover, vLAN  550

iSCSI_B  vNIC,   no failover, vLAN  551

1 Mgmt vNIC   fabric failover

1 VMotion vNIC   fabric failover

VM-A  vNIC, fabric failover 

VM-B  vNIC, fabric failover

NetApp 3240  DOT 8.0.2P6  7-mode

10GB Ports connected to FI 6248 "Appliance Ports"

e1a  (vlan 550)

e1b  (vlan 551)

[jnordsving]

More testing reveils on a reboot,  the ESX host does come up.   I'm just conserned that all the files were properly copied,   we did notice that a VMFS file system was not created on the boot LUN..  which is the least of my concerns.

[Robert Burns · Accepted solution]

This is a known issue with ESX 5.  Upon completion of installation to the iSCSI boot LUN, the installer tries to re-initialize the iSCSI adaptor with a DHCP address.  This fails and kicks out the error you see.  The install will have completed fine - just reboot as you have done.

The VMFS LUN not created on the boot LUN for ESX 5 is also expected behavior.

Regards,

Robert