Blank DCUI Screen

[bogd]

So one day I decide to move my ESXi install from local disks to USB flash. I find out about PowerCLI and Get-VMHostFirmware, so I say "OK, this should be painless...".

I get the .tgz, fire up the installer, install to SD card, and reboot. Put the system in maintenance mode, and upload the saved config. The system automatically reboots.

Well... there's a nice surprise - a completely BLANK DCUI! :|

What's worse is that I cannot find a way to access the server anymore - as you can see below, all options related to management network are grayed out:

OK, I say - not a problem. Just a glitch. I'll try again... Fire up installer, reinstall, upload config package - same result!

A sane person would have probably given up right about now. But I just had to try again. Same result! :smileyhappy:

Since this is a lab deployment, it will be (reasonably) painless to reinstall and reconfigure. But still, I'd like to know if anyone has come across this before. A quick search of the Internet didn't turn up any relevant results.

And, of course, I'd like to know how one could recover from such a scenario.

Thank you!

[zXi_Gamer]

It seems that the esx.conf file is not linked somehow, if you havent tried, can you provide to reset system configuration to create a new esx.conf and check if you are facing the same issue.

[bogd]

@zXi_Gamer: That would most likely help. However, it still leaves me with the question - why was it impossible to restore a backup, and what should one do in order to restore such a backup after a reinstall?

I rebooted the host repeatedly, and I performed the entire reinstall/restore_backup procedure 3 times. Every single time with the same result - so it was most definitely reproducible.

In the meantime, I had to reinstall and reconfigure the host (not too many spares in my lab, so I couldn't afford to keep this host down :smileyhappy: ). But the question remains :smileyhappy:

[zXi_Gamer]

Well, some of the reason, I think would be the esx.conf file being corrupted over copy or was moved while updating or worst case, autobackup was triggered when the migration was happening. While, I truly cant fix on a specific reason, you can possibly try out to look for difference between /bootbank/state.tgz>local.tgs>esx.conf and  /altbootbank//state.tgz>local.tgs>esx.conf  file and is the config is same, you can replace the esx.conf to get your settings back :smileyhappy:

Also do make a check, in case if your host is put in maintenance mode, by vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

[HannuBalk]

Hi!

Could you go to "Troubleshooting Options" -> "Enable ESXi Shell" and "ALT+F1". Then login to host and run following command:

esxcli network  nic list

Verify that your ESXi has identified your network cards properly. Example output is following:

Name    PCI Device     Driver  Link  Speed  Duplex  MAC Address         MTU  Description

------  -------------  ------  ----  -----  ------  -----------------  ----  --------------------------------------------------------------

vmnic0  0000:002:00.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:9b  1500  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

vmnic1  0000:002:01.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:a5  1500  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

vmnic2  0000:002:02.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:af  9000  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

vmnic3  0000:002:03.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:b9  1500  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

vmnic4  0000:002:04.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:c3  1500  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

vmnic5  0000:002:05.0  e1000   Up     1000  Full    00:0c:29:23:b6:cd  1500  Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

If not check that your image contains correct drivers for your nic.

-Hannu

[bogd]

@HannuBalk: The NIC drivers are there - remember that in order to push the .tgz backup file to the host, I had to go into the DCUI after install and configure network connectivity.

[SatyS]

I faced the same issue once.I tried a reboot(warm boot) which resolved this .

Hope this helps!!

-SatyS