WilliamLam.com

  • About
    • About
    • Privacy
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VKS
  • Homelab
    • Resources
    • Nested Virtualization
  • VMware Nostalgia
  • Apple
You are here: Home / ESXi / Disabling TPM 2.0 connection cannot be established message in ESXi for Intel NUC 10

Disabling TPM 2.0 connection cannot be established message in ESXi for Intel NUC 10

08.21.2020 by William Lam // 3 Comments

For Intel NUC 10 (Frost Canyon) owners who have installed ESXi may have noticed that even after disabling Intel's Trusted Platform Module (TPM), the following warning message "TPM 2.0 device detected but a connection cannot be established." is still being displayed in the vSphere UI as shown in the screenshot below. 


Thanks to Reddit member mscaff and casperette who recently discovered and confirmed that the latest BIOS (FN0044) resolves an issue where disabling TPM in the BIOS was not actually working which would explain the behavior observed above. The really interesting thing is that I had initially ran into this problem several months back and after speaking with some internal VMware folks, I was able to get rid of this message without this update. This involved installing Windows 10 and clear the TPM keys which may have still been cache but since then, it has not been reproducible by other folks. In any case, it is always recommended to check and update to latest BIOS to ensure you have all the latest bug fixes.

Lastly, Intel states support for TPM 2.0 for these NUCs, so why is ESXi complaining? Well, it has to do with the interface type and not with SHA1 vs SHA256 which are both supported on the NUC 10. The NUC only supports CRB but proper compliant TPM 2.0 chip must support FIFO which is not configurable the last time I had checked. For more detail requirements and configuration of TPM 2.0 on ESXi, please refer to this blog post.

More from my site

  • Quick Tip - Which vCenter Server Key Provider (KMS) is a VM using?
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 running on Intel NUC
  • Clearing TPM alarms after replacing TPM chip or resetting TPM keys for ESXi
  • Frigate NVR with Coral TPU & iGPU passthrough using ESXi on Intel NUC
  • GPU Passthrough with Nested ESXi

Categories // ESXi, Home Lab Tags // Frost Canyon, Intel NUC, TPM

Comments

  1. *protectedBill says

    02/12/2021 at 7:22 am

    Is there no way to disable/supress the message?

    Reply
    • *protectedSteve says

      04/03/2021 at 11:43 pm

      Same question

      Reply
  2. *protectedLeon Straathof says

    02/05/2024 at 4:11 am

    The statement that CRB is not in the final spec for TPM is not valid. The final official document of the spec shows clearly on page 9 in the flowchart that a driver for TPM must contain both methods. And that FIFO is the preferred way and must be tried first. If not available CRB must be tried. And only after both fail the invalid TPM message should appear. https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/wp-content/uploads/TCG_PCClient_Design_Principles_TPM2p0_Driver_rp27_190809_final.pdf

    Reply

Thanks for the comment!Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search

Thank Author

Author

William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

Connect

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Mastodon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Recent

  • VMware Flings is now available in Free Downloads of Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) 05/19/2025
  • VMUG Connect 2025 - Minimal VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.x in a Box  05/15/2025
  • Programmatically accessing the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) 05/06/2025
  • Quick Tip - Validating Broadcom Download Token  05/01/2025
  • Supported chipsets for the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling 04/23/2025

Advertisment

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Copyright WilliamLam.com © 2025

 

Loading Comments...