Boot ESXi 6.7 in UEFI Boot Mode

[Sherms]

Looking for a little guidance on getting ESXi 6.7 to SAN boot in UEFI mode. We are migrating to a new SAN storage and in the process working on vSphere upgrades. I'm able to boot in Legacy Boot Mode from the new SAN but when trying to use UEFI Boot mode I can install ESXi but once that completes it reboots and enters the BIOS screen of the B200 M3 blade instead of booting ESXi. Are there any other requirements for UEFI Boot Mode?

[Jaderson Pessoa]

Hello,

I suggest to you open a case on vMware community. 

Otherwise, check this link, i hope that can help you: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/588955

[Kirk J]

Can you confirm you booted your ISO installer while the server had a UEFI boot mode set?

Your OS needs to be aware of the UEFI environment while the install is occurring as it adds some additional files pertaining to UEFI boot, and adds a boot entry to the BIOS UEFI boot table.

Kirk...

[Sherms]

I changed my boot policy to use UEFI and then installed from the ESXi 6.7 iso. I believe the problem is the UEFI boot entry is not being added to the BIOS during the install. I'll see if I can find a doc on UEFI boot policy and see if I'm missing a setting.

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

Try this:

at UEFI shell> prompt type 'map'
confirm you have a fs0 file system listed (this UEFI shell's view of your 200MB vfat partition on local storage/raid vol or SAN LUN partition..

Now run the following:

shell> cd fs0:\\EFI\\Boot
　　 shell> BOOTX64.EFI

If you are doing this for a number of blades, then create /modify your boot from san boot policy to include Uefi Boot Parameters:

Thanks,

Kirk...

[Sherms]

I'm not seeing fs0 in the EFI shell only blk0 and blk1. I have my boot policy setup like your screenshot above. Thanks for all your help. I'm obviously missing something.

[Kirk J]

If the UEFI shell only sees block devices and no mounted compatible FAT type file systems, then you may need to use this same profile, and re-install the ESXi os, and make sure you choose the UEFI-vKVM DVD to boot to as the installer.  It's up to the OS installer to correctly create the UEFI compatible (additional) partitions, but it won't if it doesn't detect UEFI mode, or the boot media isn't loaded in UEFI mode.

Kirk...

[Sherms]

I re-installed ESXi by pressing F6 at boot and booted from the listed UEFI-DVD boot option and I really thought that was the last issue and it was going to work but I still don't see fs0 in the EFI shell after the re-install.

[Sherms]

Ended up opening ticket with Cisco TAC and Nimble Storage. Cisco TAC found an access denied error on one of the LUN's and recommended I talk to Nimble to see why. Nimble came back with UEFI not being supported for Fibre Channel SAN boot. Using UEFI is not critical so I'm rolling with Legacy BIOS mode to get the project going and Nimble is supposed to lab it and see if they will support UEFI down the road.

[ryanyeeez12a]

I was able to get this to work with by specifying a Local LUN/Disk in the boot order (UCS Central). This is with UEFI and Secure Boot enabled. Input the boot loader file and paths like shown in the screenshot. 

Running some of those commands in the shell had some output as if UEFI sees SAN disks as local.