ProxMox VE 8.3.3: Imported .ova won't boot

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kyrrin

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Nov 28, 2020
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Fellow techies,

This one's got me tearing out what little hair I have left.

I'm trying to create a Cisco vWLAN controller, straight from the .ova image Cisco provides, into PVE 8.3.3. The import goes perfectly, but no matter what I try I can't get the thing to boot. The console window keeps cycling, saying 'Not a bootable device. Retrying in 1 second.'

The is the only .ova I've experienced this with. All the others I've tried worked flawlessly.

Here's the output from qm config.

root@xanadu:~# qm config 121
boot: order=scsi0
cores: 1
cpu: x86-64-v2-AES
memory: 2048
meta: creation-qemu=9.0.2,ctime=1739839546
name: v-sky
net0: e1000=BC:24:11:57:09:0A,bridge=vmbr0
net1: e1000=BC:24:11:69:D0:10,bridge=vmbr1
ostype: l24
scsi0: local:121/vm-121-disk-1.qcow2,size=8G
scsihw: pvscsi
smbios1: uuid=8583a41d-02c9-43e3-9d14-0473a6473f9f
sockets: 1
vmgenid: 52fc41d3-9b01-4a4d-928c-4ecca26472d7
root@xanadu:~#

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks!

----------------------UPDATE

Just wanted to say I've tried this with multiple versions of the .ova file, from the current one on back to the first version (7.4). Exact same result: The VM builds, but won't boot.
 
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usually this is an issue with the virtual hardware, did you try different scsi controllers or disk types ? (e.g. sata/ide; don't forget to change your boot disk when changing this)
is there any public download for this (the only i can find is behind a login/paywall)
 
Hi,
maybe the image expects to be run with UEFI/OVMF rather than the default SeaBIOS: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/OVMF/UEFI_Boot_Entries ?
What would also be interesting is to check the filesystem/partitions on the imported drive. You can expose the qcow2 contents as a read-only block device and check there:
Code: 
modprobe nbd
qemu-nbd -n -r -c /dev/nbd0 /path/to/image.qcow2
wipefs /dev/nbd0
fdisk -l /dev/nbd0
And after you are done, clean up the block device
Code: 
qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd0
 
dcsapak said:
usually this is an issue with the virtual hardware, did you try different scsi controllers or disk types ? (e.g. sata/ide; don't forget to change your boot disk when changing this)
is there any public download for this (the only i can find is behind a login/paywall)
Click to expand...
I tried all the available SCSI controller options, without any luck, but I didn't know about changing the disk types. I will try that as time allows.

As for the .ova image, Cisco lets you have a free one-time download of the package if you ask nicely, and it only comes with a 60-day evaluation license in any case, so I see no reason not to post a Sync link to my copy.

https://ln5.sync.com/dl/4706f4520/38rag65e-ndk32rf9-fyx2suxw-esnik6x3

Thanks!
 
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fiona said:
Hi,
maybe the image expects to be run with UEFI/OVMF rather than the default SeaBIOS: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/OVMF/UEFI_Boot_Entries ?
What would also be interesting is to check the filesystem/partitions on the imported drive. You can expose the qcow2 contents as a read-only block device and check there:
Code: 
modprobe nbd
qemu-nbd -n -r -c /dev/nbd0 /path/to/image.qcow2
wipefs /dev/nbd0
fdisk -l /dev/nbd0
And after you are done, clean up the block device
Code: 
qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd0
Click to expand...
Thank you. I will give this a try as well.
 
kyrrin said:
I tried all the available SCSI controller options, without any luck, but I didn't know about changing the disk types. I will try that as time allows.

As for the .ova image, Cisco lets you have a free one-time download of the package if you ask nicely, and it only comes with a 60-day evaluation license in any case, so I see no reason not to post a Sync link to my copy.

https://ln5.sync.com/dl/4706f4520/38rag65e-ndk32rf9-fyx2suxw-esnik6x3

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The image in the archive is all zeroes. But there also is an ISO file in there. Maybe that is the installer or something? Usually an OVA already contains a ready image. You can extract the ova via e.g. tar xf AIR_CTVM-K9_8_10_196_0.ova --one-top-level=AIR_CTVM-K9_8_10_196_0 and proceed from there.
 
Turns out I was able to extract the .ISO file from the archive with 7Zip. I'll give just the ISO a try in PVE as time allows.

Fiona -- Thank you for filing a bug report on this! To me, that's above and beyond the 'call of duty.' ;-)
 
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