Error: "Using 'simple offset' UEFI RTS mapping policy" when booting ESXi over UEFI PXE

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to boot an ESXi host over UEFI PXE with default configurations, the process stops with the following message:

Shutting down firmware services...
Using 'simple offset' UEFI RTS mapping policy

Note: The last message conveys how far the bootloader got before stopping.

Resolution

UEFI RTS (UEFI Runtime Services) refers to the functions and services provided by the UEFI firmware to the ESXi after the boot process is complete. To workaround this, disable UEFI RTS using the below steps.

1. Boot the installer via bootx64.efi with -U from iPXE
2. In the /efi/boot.cfg file, add "norts=1" to the UEFI configuration file 
   
   Example of /efi/boot.cfg
   
   bootstate=0
title=Loading ESXi installer
timeout=5
prefix=http://<server>/os/esxi/7
kernel=b.b00
kernelopt=runweasel ks=http://<server>/os/esxi/7/ks.cfg
norts=1
modules=jumpstrt.gz ......
build=7.0.2-0.0.17867351
updated=0


3. For the iPXE item:
   
   kernel nfs://${fog-ip}:/images/os/esxi/7/efi/boot/bootx64.efi -c nfs://${fog-ip}:/images/os/esxi/7/efi/boot/boot.cfg -U
boot || goto MENU