Server won't reboot

[gpribyl]

Just rebooted my server today. It is a virtual server on VMware. As soon I try to power it on it just goes to a black screen with several underscores blinking randomly all over the screen. I tried rebooting it several times but the same thing happens. Tried removing and re-registering the VM, but that didn't work. My guess is that the bios cannot see the system drive, but do not know how to fix that.

[tuxmaster]

First simple test.
Try to boot the vm with an rescue Linux of your choice and look, if the virtual disk is visible.
When yes, boot the CentOS rescue environment and restore grub.

[toracat]

You need to provide more detailed information. Which product of VMWare and what version? What is the kernel version that does not boot? etc.

[gpribyl]

Tried to reinstall grub, but got this error:

# /sbin/grub-install /dev/sda
Could not find device for

OS version and platform:
CentOS 6.5
VMware, ESXi 5.5

uname -a:
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Nov 22 03:15:09 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux


/etc/fstab:

/dev/mapper/vg_centostemp-lv_root / ext4 defaults 1 1
UUID=2da57a6a-92a1-4ebe-b1de-ca322038c27a /boot ext4 defaults 1 2
/dev/mapper/vg_centostemp-lv_swap swap swap defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0


/boot/grub/grub.conf:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_centostemp-lv_root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=vg_centostemp/lv_swap rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rd_LVM_LV=vg_centostemp/lv_root rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_centostemp-lv_root rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=vg_centostemp/lv_swap rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=auto KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rd_LVM_LV=vg_centostemp/lv_root rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64.img

[vonskippy]

Does any VM on that ESXi server boot?

If it's just that one CentOS VM, try the previous snapshot and see what happens, could either be a bad VM image, or a failing Host HD.

[gpribyl]

We weren't able to figure out the issue. We ended up having to rebuilt the machine from scratch. Thanks to all those who submitted suggestions.