BE6000S comes to a Shell> prompt instead of ESXi config page

[Damian Albury]

We just received our first BE6000S and when we plug in to the vga port fresh out the box it goes through its boot procedure and the last few items on the screen are blk1 - Hard Disk null with additional message info then blk2 Hard Disk null all the way to Blk9. This is followed by "Press Esc in X seconds to skip startup.nsh, any other key to continue" (We tried waiting, pressing any other key and even ESC on subsequent reboots) but it always does the same thing, it shows a rudimentary "Shell>" prompt which has a few commands but doesn't seem to do anything after that. Anyone seen this behaviour or can tell us what we are doing wrong?

[victorchen]

I have exactly the same issue here, Damian do you have answer for this now?

Thanks

[Damian Albury]

No resolve yet. As soon as I have it I will post it here.

[Andrew Hickman]

Hi Guys,

This is absolutely not right.  It looks like the disk array is somehow corrupt. Could you let me know the serial number of your UCS-E blades please?

I recommend you RMA these devices to get a correctly prepared product.

Andy

[Damian Albury]

Is there a way I can PM you or e-mail you the serial numbers?

[Andrew Hickman]

Sure - please send to my Cisco.com email.  I'm ahickman there.

Andy

[Damian Albury]

Ok so I did a small change and pressed F6 at startup and selected boot from RAID as it appears its set to boot form EFI first and I now have the ESXi page booting. Still need to check if all that is required is to change the default boot device permanently in the BIOS, but this may be the resolve.

[Andrew Hickman]

Thanks Damian,

That makes sense - although of course that shouldn't be the default setting.

I'll check our preparation process to ensure this boot setting is configured correctly.

Andy

[martyn.rees]

Received a new 6000s system today and had the same issue, and had to reboot and select F6 in order for ESXi to boot.

[victorchen]

Hi Damian,

Appropriate about your update post, I figure out pressed F6 and select right boot yesterday too.

[lesquive]

Hello everyone, I had this same issue. To fix please do the following:

Boot-order will look something like this:

-          Option # 1  EFI shell

-          Option #2  Virtual CD drive

-          Option #5  HDD.

Make HDD option #1 and rebooted the server. After doing this, the ESXi will load without any issues.

to access the BIOS you're going to need to hit F6 or F2 and the system might prompt you to create a password.

[MBO46]

Hi all,

I had the same issue today with a BE6KS and the best way to boot on the RAID is to disable all other boot device :)

Best regards,

Matthieu

[lorinc.jan]

Hello,

I remember I had this same problem and I solved it as well in BIOS with Boot Order. I started to work on a new BE6000S today, and of course, there is the same issue.

When I change the boot order in the BIOS, it boots correctly. However, after restart, it changes into the default order again. I have absolutely no idea how this is possible.

Did you have to make any other change in BIOS, or just the boot order?

[lorinc.jan]

Ok, I have tried to deactivate all other options in the boot order other than to boot from HDD. I also changed the Linux HDD into the RAID itself. I tested it now a few times, and it is working also after a restart / shut down.

I find this rather disturbing, that we have to play around with BIOS configuration just to boot the "for your convenience pre-configured" product. 

Thanks for this whole thread, it pointed me in the right direction.

UPDATE: After a BIOS/CIMC Update I got into the Shell again. This time I made the changes of the boot order not directly in the BIOS, but within the CIMC interface. This seems to have finally solved it.