Booting the ESXi/ESX host fails with the error: initialization of module dvfilter failed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot boot the ESXi/ESX host
• Booting the ESXi/ESX host fails
• You see the error:
  
  initialization of module dvfilter failed.
  
  
• In the VMkernel logs (located at /var/log/), you see entries similar to:
  
  19:24:45 vm07 vmkernel: 0:00:00:43.939 cpu5:4110)WARNING: Elf: 3064: Kernel based module load of dvfilter failed: Failure
  19:24:45 vm07 vmkernel: 0:00:00:43.941 cpu0:4096)VMNIX: Logger: 481: sysboot: Failed to load dvfilter
  19:24:45 vm07 vmkernel: 0:00:00:43.949 cpu0:4096)VMNIX: Logger: 481: sysboot: 47.dvfilters returned unknown error code: 2

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the dvfilter module fails to load.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, manually load the dvfilter module.

To manually load the dvfilter module:

1. On the DCUI screen of the ESXi/ESX host, log in as the root user.
2. To load the dvfilter module, run the command:
   
   esxcfg-module –e /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/dvfilter
   
   
3. In the ESXi/ESX host, navigate to Configuration > Software, then click Advanced Settings.
4. Remove the IP address from /Net/Net.DVFilterBindIpAddress.
5. Reboot the ESXi/ESX host.