Looks like a corrupted installation, re-install ESXi. It will detect and prompt if it finds an existing VMFS partition (where the VMs are located). Select Preserve VMFS, and re-install.
Sadly this post will be really short as again, lots going on. Recovering a host that failed after a regular reboot, which had a superblock corruption on it's main OS drive. Also, the BELK series will be done, I just need a bit more time. Sorry for the delays.
- You should find the server successfully boots, and the ESXi USB flash drive installation media, has been successfully repaired. Congratulations, you have successfully Fixed the the Error loading /s.v00 Fatal error: 33 (Inconsistent data) in the VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
- Jun 20, 2016 Fatal error: 33 (Inconsistent data) Turned out to be a bad USB drive. Bad (usually cheap generic drives) work well for storing files, but in my experience, lack the ability to be used as install media or 'Live CD's'. I am not sure what makes one drive work over the other, but assume it has to do with the controller interface on those drives.
'Failed to load /sb.v00' [Inconsistent Data]
Since this drive was not on the main datastore on the host all the VMs were unaffected.
Now loading linux showed the drive data was till accessible, but I also had a feeling this USB drive was on it's way out. I created a copy using DD, *sadly I didn't do it the smart way and place it on a drive big enough to save it as a image file, but instead directly to another drive of the same size.
I tried to install the same image of ESXi on top of the current one in hopes it would fix the boot partition files along the way. This only made the host get past /sb.v00 and vault randomly past it with 'Fatal Error: 6 [Buffer Too Small]'
Fatal Error Zenekar
I was pretty tired at this point since the server boot times are rather long and attempts were becoming tedious. I did another DD operation of the drive, to the same drive (still not having learned my lesson) and when I awoke to my dismay, it failed only transferring 5 gigs with an I/O error. This really made me sure the drive was on the way out, but it was still mountable (the boot partitions 5, 6 and 8)
At this point you might be wondering, why doesn't he just re-install and reload a backup config? Which is fair question, however one was not on hand, but surely it must be somewhere on the drive. I know how to create and recover on a working host but a one that can't boot? Then I found this gem.
Now through out my attempts I did discover the boot partitions to be 5 and 6 and I did even copy them from a new install to my copied version I made about and it did boot but was a stock config. I was stumped till I read the section from the above blog post on 'How to recover config from a system that doesn't boot'. Line 7 was what nailed it on the head for me:
Fatal Error Sans
'mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
7. In the /mnt/sda5 directory, you can find the state.tgz file that contains ESXi configuration. This directory (in which state.tgz is stored) is called /bootblank/ when an ESXi host is booted.'
I was just like … wat? That's it. Grabbed the bad main drive mounted on a linux system, saw the state.tgz file and made a copy of it, connected the new drive that had a base ESXi config, replaced the state.tgz file with the one I copied, booted it and there was the host in full working state with all network configs and registered VMs and everything.
Esxi Installer Fatal Error 33 Free
Sadly this post will be really short as again, lots going on. Recovering a host that failed after a regular reboot, which had a superblock corruption on it's main OS drive. Also, the BELK series will be done, I just need a bit more time. Sorry for the delays.
- You should find the server successfully boots, and the ESXi USB flash drive installation media, has been successfully repaired. Congratulations, you have successfully Fixed the the Error loading /s.v00 Fatal error: 33 (Inconsistent data) in the VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
- Jun 20, 2016 Fatal error: 33 (Inconsistent data) Turned out to be a bad USB drive. Bad (usually cheap generic drives) work well for storing files, but in my experience, lack the ability to be used as install media or 'Live CD's'. I am not sure what makes one drive work over the other, but assume it has to do with the controller interface on those drives.
'Failed to load /sb.v00' [Inconsistent Data]
Since this drive was not on the main datastore on the host all the VMs were unaffected.
Now loading linux showed the drive data was till accessible, but I also had a feeling this USB drive was on it's way out. I created a copy using DD, *sadly I didn't do it the smart way and place it on a drive big enough to save it as a image file, but instead directly to another drive of the same size.
I tried to install the same image of ESXi on top of the current one in hopes it would fix the boot partition files along the way. This only made the host get past /sb.v00 and vault randomly past it with 'Fatal Error: 6 [Buffer Too Small]'
Fatal Error Zenekar
I was pretty tired at this point since the server boot times are rather long and attempts were becoming tedious. I did another DD operation of the drive, to the same drive (still not having learned my lesson) and when I awoke to my dismay, it failed only transferring 5 gigs with an I/O error. This really made me sure the drive was on the way out, but it was still mountable (the boot partitions 5, 6 and 8)
At this point you might be wondering, why doesn't he just re-install and reload a backup config? Which is fair question, however one was not on hand, but surely it must be somewhere on the drive. I know how to create and recover on a working host but a one that can't boot? Then I found this gem.
Now through out my attempts I did discover the boot partitions to be 5 and 6 and I did even copy them from a new install to my copied version I made about and it did boot but was a stock config. I was stumped till I read the section from the above blog post on 'How to recover config from a system that doesn't boot'. Line 7 was what nailed it on the head for me:
Fatal Error Sans
'mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
7. In the /mnt/sda5 directory, you can find the state.tgz file that contains ESXi configuration. This directory (in which state.tgz is stored) is called /bootblank/ when an ESXi host is booted.'
I was just like … wat? That's it. Grabbed the bad main drive mounted on a linux system, saw the state.tgz file and made a copy of it, connected the new drive that had a base ESXi config, replaced the state.tgz file with the one I copied, booted it and there was the host in full working state with all network configs and registered VMs and everything.
Esxi Installer Fatal Error 33 Free
Add Drivers To Esxi Installer
Not sure why the config is stored in the boot partition, but there you go. Huge Shout out to Michael Bose for his write I suggest you check it out. I have saved it case it disappears from the internet and I can re-publish it. For now just visit the link. 🙂