Machine hangs at first restart after installing VMware5 - IBM Flex System

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H21725

Symptom

System hangs with error, 'loading ESXI S.V00', during the first start after VMware ESXi 5.1 is installed over legacy internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

• Flex System x220 Compute Node, type 7906, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 8737, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 8738, any model
• Flex System x440 Compute Node, type 7917, any model

This tip is not software specific.

This tip is not option specific.

The following system BIOS or UEFI level(s) are affected:

• Build ID: CNE121DUS, CNE122DUS, CNE125HUS, and CNE126HUS
  

Solution

The symptom was fixed with ibm_fw_uefi_cne136s-1.30_anyos_32-64 available on IBM Support's Fix Central web page at the following URL:

• http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

Workaround

Use the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) iSCSI to install EXSi.

Additional information

The iSCSI transfer for a number of files takes a lot of time.

Some Universal Network Device Interface (UNDI) implementations tried to skimp and not handle interrupts. The V7000 Storage Node has a very short KeepAlive ping. If they leave interrupts disabled, it can drop the link.

In the case of legacy start, it is the Network Interface Controller (NIC) Adapter ROM that implements UNDI. For UEFI start, it is UEFI core that implements UNDI.

Using a WireShark trace to analyze, the issue will happen when network bandwidth is poor for iSCSI and large amounts of data in one packet are requested by VMware boot loader. One possible workaround is to put the I/O in same chassis. Multiple legacy OS will be affected.