Score:-1

Dell PowerEdge t610 will not boot ESXI installer from USB

cn flag

I downloaded the ESXI installer from VMWare for V8.

I checked and the MD5 matches with what's listed on the download.

I'm using a Mac to write the iso to a known working USB (using DD)

The server will not boot in uefi or bios mode from the USB - I get the message no bootable disk found.

I have an Ubuntu ISO and if I use the same dd command to send it to the same USB device it boots on the server. This rules out the dd command being the problem, and rules out the USB device being a problem.

Why won't the esxi v8 iso not boot? I can't figure it out.

EDIT - I just created a VirtualBox vm and booted from the iso attached to the virtual CD and it booted the installer, so the image is the correct one.

Score:0
br flag

Just as a test try using iDRAC virtual console to mount the .iso installer file remotely - that'll help diagnose if this is a USB-specific problem or something else with the server.

Score:0
cn flag

The issue is that the iso image from VMWare does not create a partition table and so the iso by default is not bootable.

What I had to do was format a partition as FAT (Not EXFAT or that BS that the mac provides) and rsync the contents of the iso image to the FAT partition (rather than DD the whole drive image).

Then it boots.

Won't install, but that's a hardware issue on my end but I fixed this issue.

Score:-1
ru flag

I believe the t610 has a size limit on the usb drive. Yry a smaller drivee. 2gb. Or try reformatting to fat32

mikeb avatar
cn flag
What about the fact that Ubuntu boots fine from the same USB drive?
mikeb avatar
cn flag
Also, formatting does not really make sense if I'm using dd to write an iso image to the device, I don't think.
ru flag
Try using Rufus instead of dd in cli
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