NSX Bare Metal Edge (BME) not accessible because of hardware issue

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• Faulty hardware can cause BME to fail and be inaccessible.

• You may experience the following behaviors on the BME:

  • Unable to access the UI or CLI
  • Unable to install on certified hardware
  • Unable to upgrade on certified hardware
  • Receiving MCE errors in your log files
  • Failed to load
  • Failed but is now back up
  • Fails repeatedly
  • Stops responding

Environment

NSX

Cause

Hardware failures possible on BME hardware (this is not an exhaustive list hardware failures):

• DIMM failed (RAM)
  • You may see something similar to the following on the management console (RIB, iDRAC, iLO):
  • 
    

Resolution

Run hardware diagnostic tests and engage the hardware vendor

• Most servers are shipped with a hardware diagnostics CD, although other hardware vendors may choose to install a hidden utility partition located on your hard drive.
• You can diagnose hardware related problems on your server by booting from the diagnostic CD or choosing Diagnostics from the boot device list.
  
  
• These diagnostic tools allow you to:
  • Check the hardware configuration and verify that it is functioning correctly.
  • Test individual hardware components.
  • Diagnose hardware-related problems.
  • Obtain a complete hardware configuration.

Note:

• When testing, if a component failure is detected, make note of any error code(s) and contact the hardware vendor.
• This diagnostic will not be able to detect the hardware fault unless it occurs during the test, so it must be run for quite some time.
• If you are not experienced with computers or have any concerns, please contact your hardware vendor.