ESXi host boot fails with an error - Two filesystems with the same UUID have been detected

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

After adding a new disk to an ESXi subsequent reboot of the host fails to boot.
System that has access to multiple installations of ESXi with the same build number on different drives, the system crashes (PSOD) displaying panic messages, such as:

Error: The system has found a problem on your machine and cannot continue. Two filesystems with the same UUID have been detected. Make sure you do not have two ESXi installations.

Additionnal symptom reported:

Multiple OS-DATA and BOOTBANK1 and BOOTBANK2 partitions detected with disk free command (#df -h)

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs when ESXi is installed on both the local hard disk drive and a newly added hard disk.

Running the df -h command on the ESXi host displays a duplicate Bootbank 1 partition, indicating that the host has detected a secondary disk containing a boot bank partition.

Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on

vfat 4.0G 0.0B 4.0G 0% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1

vfat 4.0G 0.0B 4.0G 0% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

vfat 4.0G 212.8M 3.8G 0% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1

Resolution

To resolve this issue, detach the newly added disk and boot the system from the drive that has ESXi installation and reboot the system. In this case, the disks detached must be wiped before they can be used.

Alternatively you can :

Clear disk partitions

Verify that the device is not in use byESXi as boot disk, VMFS datastore, or vSAN.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/clear-a-device-partition.html

Click Storage in theVMware Host Client and click Devices.
Right-click a device from the list, click Clear partition table and click Yes.
Clearing the partition table might cause data loss.

OR

During the system bootup:

When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options.
At the prompt, type overrideDuplicateImageDetection to set the boot option.
Make sure that the host is set to boot from the disk that has the correct ESXi installation.
After the host boots successfully, wipe the disks that have the incorrect ESXi installation.

Additional Information

To identify the disk in use for esxi boot

#df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
VMFSOS 119.8G 16.7G 103.1G 14% /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-<uuid1>
VMFSOS 119.8G 18.2G 101.6G 15% /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-<uuid2>
vfat 4.0G 348.8M 3.7G 9% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1
vfat 4.0G 366.0M 3.6G 9% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2
vfat 4.0G 204.6M 3.8G 5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1
vfat 4.0G 206.7M 3.8G 5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

#esxcli storage core device partition list
Device Partition Start Sector End Sector Type Size
---------------------- --------- ------------ ----------- ---- ----
<Disk1_DisplayName> 0 0 ## 0 ##
<Disk1_DisplayName> 1 64 204863 0 104857600
<Disk1_DisplayName> 5 208896 8595455 6 4293918720<=== BOOTBANK1 (Partition 5)
<Disk1_DisplayName> 6 8597504 16984063 6 4293918720<=== BOOTBANK2 (Partition 6)
<Disk1_DisplayName> 7 16986112 268435455 f8 128742064128<=== OSDATA-<uuid1> (Partition 7)

<Disk2_DisplayName> 0 0 ## 0 ##
<Disk2_DisplayName> 1 64 204863 0 104857600
<Disk2_DisplayName> 5 208896 8595455 6 4293918720<=== BOOTBANK1 (Partition 5)
<Disk2_DisplayName> 6 8597504 16984063 6 4293918720<=== BOOTBANK2 (Partition 6)
<Disk2_DisplayName> 7 16986112 268435455 f8 128742064128<=== OSDATA-<uuid2> (Partition 7)

#esxcli storage core device list | grep -E "^ Display Name|Is Boot Device"
Display Name: <Disk1_DisplayName>
Is Boot Device: false
Display Name: <Disk2_DisplayName>
Is Boot Device: true