iPXE ESXi 6.0u2 on UEFI -> PSOD

[vanfroda]

Another update on this issue:

We’ve come one step closer to understanding the issue, however, things have also become more complex.
Is it now our GEN9 ? iPXE ? or VMware . Who can tell.

One thing to note, - and this is interesting -, if we setup DHCP to hand out BOOTX64.EFI from the ESXi DVD directly, (so skipping iPXE), than the system doesn’t panic. So that’s a YEAH, but also a surprise, … Do note that I’ve tested this with a 6.0 update 1. It didn’t PSOD, but it failed later on because it lacked the 334i network card drive, (but that’s another issue)

So yes I can confirm:
UEFI_PXE > iPXE > vmware -> PSOD
UEFI_PXE > vmware -> no PSOD

I have it all setup using TFTP only. Just to keep the HTTP question out of the way, and it just boils down if iPXE is in the middle or not. So is iPXE at fault. I wish it was that simple.
It is the unique combination of Gen9_UEFI / iPXE / BOOTX64.efi. If one component is out of the mix = success. If all three come in to play = problem.

So far we can conclude:

GEN9_UEFI / IPXE / NON_VMWARE ---> yes can boot windows and linux. ---> (so is it an ESXi issue ? )
NON_GEN9_UEFI / iPXE / VMWARE ---> yes we can install it on None Prolaint UEFI’s ---> (so is it a ProLiant issue ? )
GEN9_UEFI / VMWARE ---> yes this works too .. ---> (so is iPXE at fault ? )

So at this point, I still cannot pin point this to a GEN9 issue, or iPXE or VMWARE.

One could say, well forget about iPXE, but skipping iPXE isn’t an option. iPXE is our central PXE engine. With this engine, we boot the system using the F12 button, this gives us a selection menu and we select: we want to install Windows, … or RHEL. … or SLES or …. VMWare. It works excellent except for UEFI with VMware. Without iPXE, no selection menu, no windows, no RHEL no SLES. And basically we want to do more with our DHCP PXE server than doing only vmware.