I have been installing XenServer on to some new IBM X3650 M3 Servers recently and have experienced very slow boot times and also issues in connecting to Fibre attached storage.
Symptom:
It takes some 10-20+ minutes every boot for the QLogic cards to present all the LUNS/Paths to the UEFI before continuing the ordinary boot-sequence.
When XenServer is installed without any HBA cards installed the servers will boot without issue. When the HBA cards are installed the XenServer fails to boot.
Issue:
The new Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) which replaces BIOS causes issues. The problem is that XenServer does not support UEFI Yet!
The problem happened when we assigned a LUN to the Qlogic FC, after that, the server won't boot into local drive, which is where XenServer is installed.
Resolution:
To fix this, you need
1. Press F1 to get into uefi bios
2. Add "legacy only" as a boot option
3. set "legacy only" as the first in boot order
4. commit to all the changes
1. Press F1 to get into uefi bios
2. Add "legacy only" as a boot option
3. set "legacy only" as the first in boot order
4. commit to all the changes
You save me many hours of troubleshooting. Thank you very much for providing the information. I have rebuilt it once, thought of rebuilding until I stumble upon your blog... great job.
ReplyDeleteThank You for the info. I was going crazy with my IBM x3650 M2 and VMware.
ReplyDelete10 points!!!!
Regards from Barcelona ;-)
Thanks. I am using your good advice now. I hope it boots correctly when done.
ReplyDeleteCheers for saving me more hours of watching this horrible IBM server booting, slowly...
Ez