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Article ID: 000030149
Content Type: Troubleshooting
Last Reviewed: 07/08/2021
Shutting down firmware services error when installing VMware ESXi* on Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7HNK or Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7HVK
Environment
VMWARE ESXI version: 5.5 or 6.5 or 6.7 with BIOS version 0049
A BIOS update is required in order to install VMWARE ESXI on these Intel® NUC Kits.
Error when trying to install VMWARE ESXI version: 5.5 or 6.5 or 6.7: Shutting down firmware services…»
Update to the latest BIOS version for the Intel NUC.
Note: This download record provides options for updating the BIOS of Intel® NUC Kits NUC8i7HNK and NUC8i7HVK
Related Products
This article applies to 2 products
Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7HNK
Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7HVK
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I have exactly the same issue with the same error message.
I have ordered 2 Intel NUC8i7HNK models 2 weeks ago, have updated the BIOS to the latest version v49 and tried to install ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 on them, neither worked. I used the ISO image downloaded directly from VMware, and used Rufus 2.18 to create the boot USB. With ESXi 6.7, after the image loading screen, I got the same error message: «Shutting down firmware services…Using ‘simple offset’ UEFI RTS mapping policy», then nothing; with ESXi 6.5, there was even no image loading screen, after chosen boot from USB, the NUC would just reboot itself.
People from Raddit are saying that they have successfully installed ESXi 6.7 on the HVK model, but I did not have the chance to test it myself, I have spent AUD4000 on the 2 HNK models (each with 32GB RAM and 1TB M.2 SSD) and now just leave them there for nothing… It is really weird because the BIOS is exactly the same on both HNK and HVK model, it should work on either one as well. However, it is not the case…
More details of other people’s complains from Raddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/intelnuc/comments/8iofop/gold_to_anyone_who_figures_out_how_to_install/ https://www.reddit.com/r/intelnuc/comments/8iofop/gold_to_anyone_who_figures_out_how_to_install/
Please, dear Intel developers, we need a new version of BIOS to install ESXi on the HNK model. Or if not needed, please let us know how to make it work…
Many thanks!!!
Now the good news…
I’m finally back up and running — A great relief, after a very tough couple of days.
Thanks to you all for the ideas and feedback. I really do appreciate the assistance.
I’m still not sure why things changed after the power outage, but I found a work around that works for me, so I’m happy with that.
I came across some suggestions that UEFI booting may may cause issue with the ESXi startup process. I originally did not think that this was my issue, as I believe that I was booting in UEFI mode prior to problems seen after the power outage. When I first tried disabling UEFI boot and using «Legacy» booting I could not get it to boot from the USB thumb drive, it showed a message on the display saying that it was trying to boot from USB, but it would not boot.
I tried adding a MBR partition to the USB drive but still could not get it to boot when in Legacy boot mode. I also tried using the SHIFT-O «runweasel formatwithmbr» boot option to the ESXi installer, but I could not get this to resolve my issue.
As I couldn’t get the ESXi 7.0 or 6.7 installer to boot from USB when in Legacy Boot mode, my next thought was to try booting from a DVD rather than USB. So I burned the ESXi 7.0b iso to a DVD, updated the boot order in BIOS and was able to boot the ESXi installer. The ESXi Installer completed (not failing at the «Initializing InitVMKernel…VMKAcpi_LateInit» step as it did when running in UEFI boot mode from a USB thumb drive).
The next challenge was to install the ESXi 7.0b onto the target boot media. I was hoping that this could be a 16GB USB thumb drive (as I was using prior to the power outage), however it would start loading the required data on the USB thumb drive but got stuck and never completed (it did this on several times, on multiple USB drives). So I tried using a USB hard drive as the target (rather than a USB Flash/Thumb Drive). The data transfer to the USB hard drive worked, and I was able to boot from the USB hard drive in Legacy boot mode. I finally had a working ESXi 7.0b server.
I found that I could access the Datastore on the internal SSD Drive via the web interface to the running ESXi hypervisor, however none of my hypervisor configuration was available (e.g. VM and network configurations, etc.). Luckily I had a backup of the /bootbank/state.tgz file that I used to restore the ESXi hypervisor configuration (via ssh, rcp and tar). Two of the three VMs stored on the internal SSD worked without an issue. The third VM apparently had a corrupted VM disk (.vmdk file) which could not be loaded. Luckily I had a recent backup of the .vmdk file, so this was easily sorted by uploading backup .vmdk file via the ESXi web interface.
Main take away lessons? The importance of a UPS and a regular backup schedule. I did have a UPS but regrettably had not yet got around to connecting this server. Server now connected to UPS, now need to invest some time to setup a UPS signal distribution and auto shutdown system, probably using something like NUT (Network UPS Tools).
Hopefully this may be of assistance to others who experience similar issues. Thanks for the help of all.
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