ESXi Host Fails to Boot After Power Cycle and Displays UEFI Shell

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• After a power cycle, the ESXi host fails to boot and automatically enters the UEFI Shell. The host does not proceed to load ESXi.
  
• Physical disks are not detected in the system BIOS (disk information appears empty).
• Hardware console or server management interface reports the host as unhealthy.
• Hardware alerts are generated related to physical disks or storage controllers.

Environment

 

• VMware ESXi 9.x
• VMware ESXi 8.x

 

Cause

This issue occurs due to hardware-related errors.
The physical server is unable to detect the installed hard drives, which prevents the system from locating the ESXi boot device. As a result, the host falls back to the UEFI Shell instead of booting ESXi.

Common underlying causes include:

• Failed or degraded physical disks
• Faulty RAID controller or storage backplane
• Cabling or power issues affecting storage devices
• Firmware or hardware component failure

Resolution

• This is a hardware issue and cannot be resolved at the ESXi software level.
• Verify disk and controller status from the server BIOS or hardware management console.
• Contact the hardware vendor for further diagnostics, repair, or replacement of faulty components.