When a system running on VMware ESXi is blocked without displaying any error, the first step to perform is to understand the exact reason.


VMware provides 2 articles to start problem determination and troubleshooting:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1014767

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1017135


IPMI Utilities can help to continue the investigation process and can be downloaded here:

https://www.supermicro.com/en/solutions/management-software/ipmi-utilities


Once IPMI Utilities are installed, you can run the following command:

IPMI command – ipmitool -I lan -H <RemoteServerBMCAddress> -U <Username> ipmi power diag

Example: ipmitool -I lan -H 192.168.5.153 -U ADMIN ADMIN ipmi power diag


As output you should get a PSOD (Purple Screen of Death) directly on your IPMI console:


image