ESX Server 3.0.x/3.

5/3i Boot Process

1.Boot loader in MBR points to the boot device

2.Grub.conf lists the boot menu options.
3.Selected menu provides:
•Location of root partition. Uses UUID instead of device
name (e.g. /dev/sda)
•RAM Disk file name relative to /boot location

ESX Server 3i Boot Process

•Boot loader in MBR points to the boot device

•initrd (initial Ram disk) is loaded

ESXi Boot Sequence

ESXi firmware boot starts from grub screen

1.Hypervisor loads necessary drivers
2.Hypervisor runs config scripts
3.Hypervisor starts daemons (services)
4.Boot process ends when DCUI screen is loaded
•Alt+F2 : DCUI (Default)
•Alt+F1: inactive console
•Alt+F11 : Summary information (version, server, CPU, memory)
•Alt+F12 : vmkernel log

The ESX Boot Process

There are several steps to the boot process.

LILO
LILO (or the “Linux Loader”) is a boot loader application (similar to
ntloader for Windows) that the system reads when it boots from the
hard drive. Based on the information contained in /etc/lilo.conf file,
the system begins its boot process. The default boot option for LILO
within ESX is to boot and load the VMkernel. The /etc/lilo.conf file
also contains information on how the COS should be configured as
it is booting. This information contains the amount of memory allocated
to it and the devices that are configured for COS use. Many of
the LILO configuration items are controlled by the vmkpcidivy command.

Console Operating System

After LILO properly initializes the boot instructions the COS begins
to load. The majority of the boot process is contained in the COS.
Most of these steps are used to prepare the VMkernel to take control
of the hardware resources.

init
The first process that the COS executes is init. This process reads the
/etc/inittab file and determines the system runlevel that should be
executed. (A Linux runlevel determines what services are started on
the server and the order in which they are started.) Varying runlevels
on a Linux system is comparable to the various boot options available
on a Windows server such as “Safe Mode” or “Command Prompt
Only.” The default system runlevel for ESX is 3, which means the system
will boot and present a console for system login. Based on this
value the COS will run the scripts contained in the /etc/rc.d/rc3.d
directory during the boot process.

/etc/rc.d/rc3.d
The /etc/rc.d/rc3.d directory actually contains symbolic links to start
scripts in the /etc/init.d directory. By running an “ls” command in the
/etc/rc.d/rc3.d directory you will see some scripts that begin with a K
and some that begin with an S. Scripts that begin with a K are used
to stop (or “kill”) a service during the boot process (or ensure it is not
running) and scripts beginning with an S are used to start a service.
You will also notice a number after the S or the K in the script’s file
name. These determine the order the script is run, starting at 0 and
going up to 99. The S scripts are executed in ascending number
order, whereas the K scripts are executed in descending order. The
order of the K or S values in the file have no meaning when it comes
to what order a script runs in.

S00vmkstart
If you run an “ls –l” command in the scripts directory you’ll notice
that the S00vmkstart command actually links to a script called
vmkhalt. By running this script first, VMware ensures that there are
no VMkernel processes running on the system during the boot
process.

S10network
The network script (S10network) starts the TCP/IP services on the
COS and assigns the IP address and hostname of the system.

S12syslog
The syslog script starts the daemon that processes system logs.
Starting this script allows the remainder of the boot process to be
logged. After the VMkernel begins to load it also provides a mechanism
to capture the log files generated by the VMkernel for review
when errors occur.

S56xinetd
The xinetd script starts the services required for the COS to handle
incoming requests for access. Each application that can be started by
xinetd has a configuration file in /etc/xinetd.d. If the “disable = no”
flag is set in the configuration file of a particular application then
xinetd starts the application. (Yeah it’s a double-negative.) The most
important application that is started here is the vmware-authd application
which provides a way to connect and authenticate to ESX to
perform VMkernel modifications.

S90vmware
This is where the VMkernel finally begins to load. The first thing that
the VMkernel does when it starts is load the proper device drivers to
interact with the physical hardware of the host. You can view all the
drivers that the VMkernel may utilize by looking in the
/usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod directory.
Once the VMkernel has successfully loaded the proper hardware
drivers it starts to run its various support scripts:
• The vmklogger sends messages to the syslog daemon and generates
logs the entire time the VMkernel is running.
• The vmkdump script saves any existing VMkernel dump files
from the VMcore dump partition and prepares the partition
in the event that the VMkernel generates unrecoverable
errors.
Next the VMFS partitions (the partitions used to store all of your VM
disk files) are mounted. The VMkernel simply scans the SCSI devices
of the system and then automatically mounts any partition that is configured
as VMFS. Once the VMFS partitions are mounted the VMkernel is completely
loaded and ready to start managing virtual machines.

S91httpd.vmware
One of the last steps of the boot process for the COS is to start the
VMware MUI (the web interface for VMware management). At this
point the VMkernel has been loaded and is running. Starting the
MUI provides us with an interface used to graphically interact with
ESX. Once the MUI is loaded a display plugged into the host’s local
console will display a message stating everything is properly loaded
and you can now access your ESX host from a web browser.