VMware ESXi 7.0/8.0 with Auto Deploy fails to boot with error "Shutting down firmware services... Using 'simple offset' UEFI RTS mapping policy"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
ESXi 7.0/8.0 hosts fail to boot during installation using Auto Deploy with UEFI Boot option, showing the error message:

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

Example:

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Resolution

Please contact your Hardware Vendor to update physical server Firmware (BIOS) version to the latest.

If you are already using the latest Firmware (BIOS) version, please follow the below steps:

1. Connect to vCenter Server using VMware PowerCLI. For more information , see vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide.

   # Connect-VIServer -Server vCenter_IP -Protocol https -User [email protected] -Password <password>

Example:

# Connect-VIServer -Server vcsa.example.com -Protocol https -User [email protected] -Password ******

Output should look like:

2. Run the following PowerCLI Command: 

   # Set-DeployOption "extra-boot-args" "norts=1"

 

Note: If the command didn't get the ESXi Host boot (same issue), please run the following PowerCLI command in addition to the first one:

# Set-DeployOption "extra-kernel-args" "-U"

Additional Information

Please note that using 'norts=1' and/or '-U' option(s) will disable access from the VMKernel to the UEFI Runtime Services which has some side effects. 
1. Without UEFI Runtime Services access the ESX installer will not be able to change the machine boot order so the host may not boot from disk unless specifically configured to do so. 
2. Machines booted with this VMKernel option may not be powered off programatically i.e. if the host 'shut down' operation is invoked the ESX OS will be shut down but the host itself will remain powered on showing a message that it is safe to power of the machine.

 

Reference:
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/441578/      AutoDeploy does not set correct ESXi boot order