Poweredge 320 Hangs At ESXI Screen

Question

Hello,

I have a poweredge 320 and it goes through boot. And it appears to be loading ESX on it. However it hangs at the black screen ESXI 5.5.0 and has message download tools to manage this host from ip address...which is its own address.

And there is two options at the bottom F2 customize view logs or F12 shutdown/restart.

However it does not respond to keyboard or mouse. Where should I go with this? Do I just cold boot it. I dont want to do that. But not sure how to get this going.

Thanks,

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Hi, Is this a new install or was it working previously? If you access it from management software does it work? Are there VMs running?

revo816 · Answer

Hello Josh,

Thanks for the reply. No it was an existing server that had VMware ESXI 5.5 running on it already. It also had an application running in one of the VMs. That is what is so strange about it. It is not heavily used and does not have a lot running in it.

I also went through led display and it said that one of the PSU's is not working but they both look good. And it powers up fine.

I am not sure where to go from here. The only thing I have left to do is power down and back up and I am afraid that will cause more problems.

Thanks

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

If possible shutdown the VMs and reboot, but if it is working other than console, you don’t have to do anything.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Do you have the management tools installed on another system? Usually it shouldn’t be managed directly from the host. https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-55-single-host-management-guide.pdf

revo816 · Answer

Josh, Not sure how to do that. The keyboard and the mouse are not responding. Is there an alternative way to get to the vms, to shut them down? Thanks,

revo816 · Answer

Josh,

I am not a server expert. But it appears that I am running out of options.

Either cold boot it, or try to get to VMware from a remote device?

If there are anything else please let me know.

Thanks,

revo816 · Answer

Ok. I will start with using the tools. And then get back to you with what I find. thanks

revo816 · Answer

No I dont. I will have to install them. Do you think it would be harmful to shut down and cold boot it?

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Those are the two options. Using the tools is safer, hard powering is faster.

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

It depends on what is running on there.

revo816 · Answer

Ok. I was able to log into IDRAC but when I get into it. All the screens say webpage cannot be found and it gives no data. Not sure what to do next. Is it time to cold boot it?

revo816 · Answer

I was able to get to the server via web interface to the ip address of the server. This brought me to IDRAC.

Unfortunatley I cannot find the user id and password. Is there a way to reset this to default so I can get into it?

Thanks,

DELL-Josh Cr · Answer

Yeah, that is probably what needs to be done.

revo816 · Answer

Good news!

It started working! I cant tell you how, maybe a bad connection. But I touched the keyboard and they ESXI setup screens for VMware started working. I was able to go to settings and change adapter settings.

Now I am dowloading the Vshpere client to be able to administer VMware from a remote device. This will take a while. But I will get back to you to let you know what I find out.

Thanks for your help Josh.

PowerEdge Hardware General

Poweredge 320 Hangs At ESXI Screen

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