Stateless boot ESXi host fails to apply host profile - No valid coredump partition found error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
When coredump partition is enabled in host profile, an ESXi host may fails to apply this host profile in stateless booting.
The host will remain in maintenance Mode

Additionally, you can see an error similar to the below in the syslog file on the host

/var/run/log/syslog.log

2021-06-18T02:32:56Z Host Profiles[2101407 opID=MainThread]: ERROR: EngineModule::ApplyHostConfig. Exception: (LocalizedException) {    dynamicType = <unset>,    dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],    msg = <unset>,    faultCause = <unset>,    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [       (LocalizableMessageWithPath) {          dynamicType = <unset>,          dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],          key = 'com.vmware.profile.coredumpPartition.noValidPartitionFound',          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [],          message = 'No valid coredump partition found.'       }    ] }
 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

Cause

CoreDumpPartitionProfile configures existing partition as core dump partition; For some cases, there is no reliable approach to auto partition disk for core dump purpose; thus, CoreDumpPartitionProfile failed due to lack of a partition that can be used for core dump purpose.

Resolution

This is a known issue for stateless host with USB device used as core dump partition.
This workaround is using either way.

• Using vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
  • Refer to our product documentation for more information, Click here
• Using a remote device set to a coredump partition
  • Refer to KB 2004299
• Disable CoreDumpProfile and reboot the host
  • Enable CoredumpProfile and re-apply the host profile
  •  Manually set the coredump partition via esxcli
    • "esxcli system coredump partition set --enable=true --smart"