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VMware deployment fails with disk errors

During the installation of VMware ESXi, an error that is related to the disk drive might be returned and the deployment does not succeed.

The error message might be similar to the following example:
error:/tmp/partitioning:line 2: install requires --disk
or --firstdisk
error:/tmp/partitioning:line 1: clearpart requires
one of the following arguments: --alldrives, --firstdisk,
--ignoredrives=, --drives=

This error might occur if the ESXi installer does not detect a SAS configuration that is available for formatting and installation. Typically, this means that the RAID configuration on the server is either inactive or configured incorrectly. Alternatively, this might happen if a server pattern was deployed through the Lenovo XClarity Administrator and Disable local disk was selected for the pattern.

Complete the following steps to resolve the issue:
  • If a server pattern was deployed to this server and Disable local disk was selected, update the server pattern and deploy it again. For more information about configuring local storage using server patterns, see Defining local storage.
  • Validate that the RAID configuration is correct on the server:
    1. Restart the server and attempt to boot into a legacy option by pressing F12 (choose something like HD0).
    2. During startup, when you see information about the LSI SAS adapter, press Ctrl-C to change the configuration.
    3. When the user interface displays, select RAID properties, and View Existing Configuration.
      • If View Existing Configuration does not appear, the RAID was not configured.
      • If the existing configuration shows a status of Inactive, ensure that the RAID is configured correctly.