ESXi Auto Deploy PXE Boot Loop due to Missing HA FDM VIB in vCenter Server Appliance
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ESXi Auto Deploy PXE Boot Loop due to Missing HA FDM VIB in vCenter Server Appliance

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Article ID: 453673

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Stateless ESXi hosts managed by Auto Deploy may fail to boot, becoming stuck in an infinite loop at host-register....

This typically occurs after a vCenter Server update or patch, where the vSphere HA (FDM) VIB files are inadvertently missing from the vCenter web root. This article provides steps to diagnose and resolve this error in a VMware vSphere environment.

 

Symptoms

  • The host boot process loops indefinitely, displaying /vmw/rbd/host-register... on the console.
  • Log files (/var/log/vmware/rbd/rbd-vc-monitor.log) report: VibFormatError: ('/tmp/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm...', 'Bad VIB archive header')
  • Attempting to fetch the missing VIB via wget http://localhost:1080/vSphere-HA-depot/vib20/vmware-fdm/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_####.vib returns a 404 Not Found error.

Environment

  • VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
  • VMware ESXi (Stateless / Auto Deploy)

Cause

The Fault Domain Manager (FDM) VIB package is missing from the vCenter local web server path (/etc/vmware-vpx/docRoot/vSphere-HA-depot/). Auto Deploy requires this file to build the host PXE configuration. When the file is missing or corrupted, the worker service throws a VibFormatError and stops host registration.

Resolution

As the FDM vib is missing from the vCenter local web, Patching the vCenter will install the new version FDM vib and replace the missing file.

if patching the vCenter is not feasible, you may need to request GS support to provide the RPM corresponding to the vCenter build  and install it as follow :

  1. Verify Missing File: SSH into the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and test accessibility: wget http://localhost:1080/vSphere-HA-depot/vib20/vmware-fdm/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_####.vib
  2. Stop Auto Deploy Service: Stop the service to prevent further errors: service-control --stop vmware-rbd-watchdog
  3. Reinstall Agents: Manually reinstall the vpxd-agents-eesx RPM package to restore missing files. Replace the filename below with the version matching your specific vCenter release: rpm -ivh --force VMware-vpxd-agents-eesx-####.x86_64.rpm
  4. Restart Service: Start the Auto Deploy service: service-control --start vmware-rbd-watchdog
  5. Reboot Host: Reboot the affected ESXi host to initiate a fresh PXE boot session.
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