VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) Appliance Fails to Boot After GRUB 2 Migration with Black GRUB Screen

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

After attempting to upgrade Grub on the VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) appliance to GRUB 2 and executing the migration script (e.g., ./migrate-to-photon-grub2.sh), the appliance fails to boot correctly. Instead of reaching the login prompt, the VM gets stuck on a black screen displaying only the GRUB menu, and never finishes the boot sequence.

Environment

VMware Identity Manager 3.3.7

Grub 0.97

Cause

The appliance fails to boot because the GRUB 2 bootloader was installed to a specific disk partition (e.g., /dev/sda4) instead of the entire physical disk device (e.g., /dev/sda).

Resolution

To resolve this boot failure, GRUB 2 must be reinstalled correctly to the physical disk device.

• Revert to Snapshots
• Follow steps in KB 378767 using script command
  • ./migrate-to-photon-grub2.sh /dev/sda