ESXi 7.x and 8.x installation fails or hangs after 10-20 minutes.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

 

ESXi 7.x and 8.x installation fails or hangs after 10-20 minutes on Cisco UCS due to USB/vMedia handoff failure.

• Attempting to install ESXi 7.x or 8.x on a remotely or locally managed Cisco UCS server.

• The initial bootloader and ESXi kernel load successfully into memory.

• The installation process halts, hangs, or drops the media connection approximately 10-20 minutes into the boot sequence.

• The failure occurs consistently across both virtual KVM vMedia and local physical external USB DVD drives.

• The identical ISO image is verified as functional and successfully installs on other ESXi hosts.

 

Environment

ESXi 7.x and 8.x running on Cisco UCS hardware. 

Cause

This issue typically occurs when the ESXi installer experiences an interruption communicating with the baseboard management controller's virtual media or local USB enumerator during the native kernel driver initialization phase. The resultant loss of access to the installation media prevents the root filesystem from mounting, halting the installation sequence.

Resolution

This is a third-party hardware and firmware fault domain issue. Broadcom Support cannot directly resolve physical USB controller dismounts or firmware handoff drops during the hardware initialization sequence.

If the steps outlined in the Workaround section do not resolve the issue, the customer must engage Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for direct UCS hardware, USB controller, and firmware analysis.

Workaround: Prior to engaging Cisco TAC, validate the following UCS configurations to ensure optimal environment conditions for the ESXi installer:

1. Validate Cisco UCS USB and vMedia Policies: Verify that the USB controller is explicitly enabled, fully mapped, and not restricted by policy within the UCSM Server Profile. Both virtual KVM media and external physical DVD drives rely on this stack.

2. Enforce UEFI Boot Mode: Validate that the Cisco UCS Boot Policy is configured strictly for UEFI mode. Mounting UEFI-structured ESXi 7.x/8.x installation media under legacy BIOS emulation can lead to parsing failures when the installer attempts to mount the root filesystem.

3. Mitigate Headless Mode Conflicts: Cisco UCS serial port redirection can occasionally conflict with the ESXi installer console output, causing the installation to appear stalled. Attempt to bypass this by pressing Shift+O at the initial ESXi boot prompt and appending ignoreHeadless=TRUE to the boot parameters.

Additional Information

Broadcom KB 323620: When booting with Headless mode enabled on a server, ESXi does not display the installer interface or DCUI