Details
Upgrading to ESXi 4.1.x using Update Manager or the vSphere Host Update Utility fails with the following error:
ERROR: Unsupported boot diskThe boot device layout on the host does not support upgrade
This issue occurs when ESXi 3.5 Embedded is installed on Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disks or Fibre Channel (FC) disks and customer is doing an in-place upgrade of ESXi. In this scenario, scratch partition is not created during the first boot of ESXi 3.5 as SAS/FC disks are considered as non-local disk, but VMFS partition is created at the location of scratch partition. The precheck script considers the scratch partition is created with a different size, therefore it returns unsupported boot disk error.
This issue is observed with HP DL380 G7 that has the Smart Array P410i controller.
Solution
Deployment Considerations
None.
Workaround
- Backup the data in vmfs partition and delete vmfs partition before upgrade or,
- Perform a fresh installation of ESXi 4.x to avoid the error.
Patch Download and Installation
See the VMware vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide for instructions on using Update Manager to download and install patches to automatically update ESX 4.1 hosts.
To update ESX 4.1 hosts when not using Update Manager, download the patch ZIP file fromhttp://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/ and install the bulletin using esxupdate from the command line of the host. For more information, see the ESX 4.1 Patch Management Guide.
Based on VMware KB 2013596
