Esxi pre-check fails because connection cannot be established to TPM 2.0 device

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

This article will guide when you have a scenario where ESXi pre-check is failing because of issue with TPM configuration.

Symptoms:
When user performs on demand pre-check before triggering upgrade on a domain, the pre-check results for Esxi will be shown as RED with specific error - "TPM 2.0 device detected but a connection cannot be established."

Environment

Vmware Cloud Foundation 4.5

Cause

This issue occurs if TPM is enabled and TPM device cannot be reached probably due to misconfiguration or partial configuration.

Resolution

To fix the TPM issue ensure that the TPM is configured in the ESXi host's BIOS to use the SHA-256 hashing algorithm and the TIS/FIFO (First-In, First-Out) interface and not CRB (Command Response Buffer).
For information about setting these required BIOS options, refer to the vendor documentation.

Workaround:
This pre-check rightly flags the issue but note that this is not an upgrade blocker and hence ESXi upgrade can be attempted without immediately fixing the TPM issue, if needed.