ESXi failed to boot up with error "Fatal error: 15 (not found)" after loading state.tgz

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Repeatedly shutdown and reboot ESXi host
• After some interations, ESXi failed to boot up with error "Fatal error: 15 (not found)" after loading state.tgz
  

Environment

ESXi 9

Cause

State.tgz corrupted due to ungraceful shutdown.

Resolution

Reinstall ESXi host.

Additional Information

Configuration changes to files on an ESXi Installable or Embedded host installation are retained in the state.tgz file on the boot device. The state.tgz file contains a copy of the configuration file /etc/vmware/esx.conf, which is consulted early in the startup process, prior to loading drivers.