Loading

×Sorry to interrupt
CSS Error

Refresh

Cookie Preference Center

General Information on cookies

When you visit our website, we use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience. This information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies by clicking on the different category headings to find out more and change your settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on the site and the services we are able to offer. Further information can be found in our

Cookie Policy.

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary

Always Active

Strictly Necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are always enabled since they are essential for our website to function. They enable core functionality such as security, network management, and website accessibility. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but this may affect how the website functions. For more information please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookie Details‎

Performance

Performance

Performance

Performance cookies are used to analyze the user experience to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. They allow us to know which pages are the most and least popular, see how visitors move around the site, optimize our website and make it easier to navigate.

Cookie Details‎

Please confirm your settings by refreshing the page.

Functional

Functional

Functional

Functional cookies help us keep track of your past browsing choices so we can improve usability and customize your experience. These cookies enable the website to remember your preferred settings, language preferences, location and other customizable elements such as font or text size. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising

Advertising cookies are used to send you relevant advertising and promotional information. They may be set through our site by third parties to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. These cookies do not directly store personal information, but their function is based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.

Cookie Details‎

Advertising Cookies

Consent Leg.Interest

Select All Vendors

Select All Vendors

Select All Hosts

Select All

Clear Filters

Information storage and access

Apply

Confirm My Choices Reject All Allow All

Skip to main content

My Subscriptions

Loading

Knowledge Base

Host fails to mount root file system during boot (1004797)

Last Updated: 3/20/2024Categories: Total Views: 19143Language:
English

1 like this article

Subscribe to get an email
newsletter with new updates

1 people found this helpful Please provide article feedback:

Symptoms

Host does not boot normally.

A kernel panic error is generated.

You see a message similar to:

Kernel Panic: VFS: : unable to mount root fs on 00:00"
Please append a correct "root=" boot option

Purpose

This article provides steps to recover a host that does not boot because it cannot find the root file system.

Resolution

This issue is most commonly caused by a misconfiguration of the boot parameters or a change in drivers that did not get updated correctly.

To ensure that the boot parameters and drivers are correctly updated:

Reboot the host.

At the grub loader prompt select Service Console-troubleshooting mode (ESX 3.x) or Troubleshooting Mode (ESX 4.x). This may allow you to boot and enter the system.

Note: In cases where the system does not boot in this mode, file a support request with VMware Support and note this Knowledge Base article ID in the problem description. For more information on filing a support request, see How to Submit a Support Request .

Log in to the Service Console as the user root .

Run these commands, according to your respective version of VMware ESX.

VMware ESX 3.x

Run this command to update the known PCI settings:

esxcfg-boot -p

Run this command to update the boot settings:

esxcfg-boot -b

Run this command to reinitialize the boot files:

esxcfg-boot -r

VMware ESX 4.x

Run this command:

esxcfg-boot -b

Note: The additional steps under VMware ESX 3.x are no longer required in VMware ESX 4.x.

Run this command to reboot the host:

shutdown -r now

Select the default boot menu option.

Related Information

If running the esxcfg-boot -b command fails, run vdf -h on the host to see how much free space is available in /boot. If there is very little space, such as 100 MB or less, check the /tmp and /vmimages folder for any old files or very large ISOs and remove them. Re-run esxcfg-boot -b. If you are able to run this command, reboot the host.

Note: ESX requires at least 24MB to boot properly.

You may also experience this issue after a successful upgrade (such as upgrading from ESX 3.5 to 4.0 and then performing an upgrade from 4.0 to 4.1). To resolve this issue, go to the troubleshooting mode and then run this command to clean the old ESX 3.5.x files:

cleanup-esx3 –f

However, after using this command, you cannot revert to ESX 3.5.x.

For more information on troubleshooting this issue, see ESX fails to boot with the error: Error 15: Could not find file (1004574) and Troubleshooting an ESX host that does not boot (10065).

Note: VMware High Availability agents may not correctly configure after the failure to boot and in the Summary tab, you can see that the HA configuration failed. In this case, in vCenter Server, right-click the host and click Reconfigure HA.

ESX fails to boot with the error: Error 15: Could not find file
Troubleshooting an ESX host that does not boot

Detectable by VMware SkylineTM

Actions

Copy

link to clipboard
copied!

Print

Language:
English

Attachments

Additional Resources

KB
•
End Of General Availability of the Free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 7.x and 8.x) (2107518)

KB
•
vNetwork Distributed Switch 上での仮想スイッチ VLAN タギング (VST) モードの構成 (1010778)

KB
•
Download and Install VMware Fusion (2014097)

Results 1-3 of 3

Ask The Community

Get answers quickly from VMware experts in the community

Post Subject

CONTINUE IN COMMUNITIES

Related Products:

VMware ESX Server

Related Versions:

VMware ESX Server 3.5.x

VMware ESX Server 3.0.x

VMware ESX 4.1.x

VMware ESX 4.0.x

Take Our Survey

Was this article helpful?

YES

NO

Copyright © 2005-2024 Broadcom. All Rights Reserved. The term “Broadcom” refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Terms of Use

Your California Privacy Rights

Privacy

Accessibility

Cookie Settings

Support Assistant