PSOD after upgrade the network adapter firmware on ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi PSOD after upgrade the X710 NIC firmware from Intel 20.5.11 to 21.5.9 with below messages
  
  The system has found a problem on your machine and cannot continue.
UEFI Secure Boot failed at time 2025-02-25T08:34:35.004Z:
Failed to verify signatures of the following vib(s): (nsx-adf nsx-cfgagent nsx-context-nux nsx-cpp-libs nsx-esx-datapath nsx-exporter nsx-host nsx-ids nsx-monitoring nsx-npa_nsx-nestdb nsx-netopa nsx-opsagent nsx-platform-client nsx-proto nsx-proxy nsx-python-gevent nsx-python-greenlet nsx-python-logging nsx-python-utils nsx-sfhe nsx-shared-libs nsx-snproxy nsx-vdpi nsxcli vsipfullib). Unrecognized tardisks: [nsx_adf.v00 nsx_cfg.v00 nsx_cont.v00 nsx_cpp.v00 nsx_esx.v00 nsx_expo.v00 nsx_host.v00 nsx_ids.v00 nsx_moni.v00 nsx_npa.v00 nsx_next.v00 nsx_neto.v00 nsx_opsa.v00 nsx_plat.v00 nsx_prot.v00 nsx_prox.v00 nsx_pyth.v00 nsx_pyth.v01 nsx_pyth.v02 nsx_pyth.v04 nsx_sfhc.v00 nsx_shar.v00 nsx_snpr.v00 nsx_vdpi.v00 nsxcli.v00 vsipfuli.v00]
  
  
• Disable Secure Boot in BIOS can make ESXi boot up successfully.
• NSX VIBs signature lost with the steps in KB NSX VIBs signature not available in ESXi host

Environment

VMware NSX 4.2.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

ESXi secure boot mode was not disabled correctly. It needs to first be disabled in ESXi secure boot enforcement, then can be disabled in hardware BIOS. In this case, before upgrading network adapter firmware, please disable secure boot in BIOS only but not in ESXi secure boot enforcement. This can cause the signature of NSX VIBs to become corrupted.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, reinstall ESXi and NSX. More information is in  Manage a Secure ESXi Configuration