Failed to load crypto64.efi Fatal error: 15 (Not found) after patching ESXi host to 7.0 Update 2

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• ​​​​Patching ESXi host to 7.0 Update 2 using a custom baseline in vLCM (Lifecycle Manager) fails.
• You see this error similar to:
  
  Loading /boot.cfg
  Failed to load crypto64.efi
  Fatal error: 15 (Not found)
  
  
   
• Using the esxcli software vib install or esxcli software vib update commands to upgrade the ESXi host to 7.0 Update 2 fails with same error.

Note: This issue is seen only when a UEFI boot mode host is being upgraded from an earlier version of ESXi 7.0.x release using patch baseline.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESXi 7.0 Update 2a. For more information, see VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 2a Release Notes.

VMware recommends to NOT upgrade to 7.0 U2 and to instead upgrade to 7.0 U2a.

As of March 12th, VMware has removed the ESXi 7.0 U2 offline depot from all sites as a result of this failure, For more information, please see KB 317905

If you have encountered this issue, please follow the workarounds below to recover your host
Post this, please pause all upgrade activity if possible

Please refer to KB 316592 for details on how to roll back an ESXi host to a previous version.

Should you need to continue with the upgrade, an upgrade using the ESX7.0U2 ISO file will avoid this issue.
However, as per the above, this is not recommended at this time.

Workaround:
To work around this issue, follow either one of the workaround:

Workaround #1

1. Access the ESXi host through the Remote Management Console (HPE ILO, Dell IDRAC, Cisco KVM Console etc.).
2. From the Remote Console, select the options to boot the ESXi host from the 7.0 Update 2 ISO image.
3. Select the Upgrade option.
   
   

Workaround #2

1. Create a bootable USB with ESXi 7.0 Update 2 ISO image.
2. Boot the ESXi host and select the Upgrade option. This should upgrade the ESXi host and should boot successfully without any issues.