ESXi upgrade failure due to insufficient entropy in storage cache

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

While upgrading the ESXi with external entropy source configured, upgrade might fail with following message:

• Storage entropy cache is not full. A full entropy cache is required for any image operation. Refer to KB 89854 for steps on how to refill the cache.
• Storage entropy cache is not full. A full entropy cache is required for upgrade. Refer to KB 89854 for steps on how to refill the cache.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.1

Cause

This issue can occur when entropy in storage cache is not fully replenished and user is trying to do ESXi upgrade or VIB installation.

Resolution

Please follow the below mentioned steps to replenish the entropy in storage cache:

Supply the entropy to host by entropy ADD API. Keep supplying the entropy until entropy in storage cache is completely replenished.

Following are the two ways to check entropy in storage cache replenished completely or not:

1. Check for "Entropy in storage cache is replenished completely" log in /var/run/log/entropyd.log. Once this log comes in entropyd log file that means storage cache is replenished.
2. Call entropy GET API and check entropy available in host. If entropy available is more than 50% of the capacity, that means storage cache is replenished.