ESXi host boot fails with an error - Two filesystems with the same UUID have been detected

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After adding a new disk to an ESXi subsequent reboot of the  host fails to boot.
• System that has access to multiple installations of ESXi with the same build number on different drives, the system crashes (PSOD) displaying panic messages, such as:

Error: The system has found a problem on your machine and cannot continue. Two filesystems with the same UUID have been detected. Make sure you do not have two ESXi installations.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

 

Cause

• This issue occurs when ESXi is installed on both the local hard disk drive and a newly added hard disk.

 

• Running the df -h command on the ESXi host displays a duplicate Bootbank 1 partition, indicating that the host has detected a secondary disk containing a boot bank partition.

      Filesystem    Size   Used      Available   Use%     Mounted on

          vfat           4.0G   0.0B      4.0G        0%     /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1

         vfat            4.0G   0.0B      4.0G        0%     /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

         vfat            4.0G  212.8M      3.8G        0%    /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1

 

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue,  detach the newly added disk and boot the system from the drive that has ESXi installation and reboot the system. In this case, the disks detached must be wiped before they can be used.

 

Alternatively:

1. During the system bootup, when the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options.
2. At the prompt, type overrideDuplicateImageDetection to set the boot option.
3. Make sure that the host is set to boot from the disk that has the correct ESXi installation.
4. After the host boots successfully, wipe the disks that have the incorrect ESXi installation.