Host Fails to Boot After You Install ESXi in UEFI Mode

After you install ESXi on a host machine in UEFI mode, the machine might fail to boot.

Problem

When you install or upgrade ESXi, the installer tries to create an UEFI boot option named VMware ESXi and make it the default boot option. When you reboot after installing ESXi the reboot might fail. This problem is accompanied by an error message similar to No boot device available.

Cause

• When the installer creates the UEFI boot option, a problem occurs while writing to the NVRAM on the host motherboard.
• The host firmware does not recognize the attempt to set the UEFI boot option as the first boot option, or the firmware overrides the boot order.
• The boot disk has an MBR or MSDOS partition table. Due to a technical limitation, the UEFI boot option is only created for a GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition table.

Note: UEFI firmware attempts to load the boot image from the EFI system partition, which is FAT based, on the disk. Booting from the EFI system partition only works if the disk is laid out by using a GPT. If the boot disk has an MBR or MSDOS partition table, a UEFI boot fails. You cannot add a boot entry for MBR. If the disk is fully consumed by ESXi, it cannot be converted to GPT, and you must boot in legacy BIOS mode.

Solution

1. While the error message is displayed on screen, open the boot options menu. Depending on your system, the boot options menu might open with a keyboard shortcut, in the BIOS menu, or in a BMC, iLO or iDRAC interface.
2. Check if a boot option VMware ESXi exists and try to boot from it. If the boot is successful, change the boot order and set VMware ESXi as the first boot option.
3. If the problem is not resolved, select an option similar to Add boot option.
   The wording and location of the option might vary, depending on your system.
4. Select the file \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI on the disk that you installed ESXi on.
5. Change the boot order so that the host boots from the option that you added.