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Quick Tip - TPM 2.0 connection cannot be established after upgrading to ESXi 8.0

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There has been several reports from folks internally and within the community that after upgrading to ESXi 8.0, they are now seeing the following TPM error message:

TPM 2.0 device detected but a connection cannot be established.


The common theme between all these reported cases that I have seen is that they are all using an Intel NUC. While the Intel NUCs may list TPM support, they do not support either TPM Interface Specification (TIS) for TPM 1.2 or the First In, First Out (FIFO) for TPM 2.0, which are industry standards for communicating with a TPM device that ESXi uses.

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Quick Tip - Automating ESXi 8.0 install using allowLegacyCPU=true

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For those looking to install ESXi 8.0 but have an unsupported CPU, the following kernel boot option allowLegacyCPU=true can be added which would bypass the installer pre-check as shown in the screenshot below.

When the ESXi installer bypass happens, instead of an error which forces you to reboot, you will get a warning message and user must acknowledge they understand they are using an unsupported CPU and then continue with the installation.

UPDATE (10/05/23) - ESXi 8.0 Update 2 requires CPU processors that support XSAVE instruction or you will not be able to upgrade and means you will hardware with a minimum of an Intel Sandy Bridge or AMD Bulldozer processor or later.

Note: For more information, also checkout my vSphere 8 Homelab considerations blog post for more tips and tricks.

For an interactive installation of ESXi, the additional acknowledgment is not an issue but for an automated installation of ESXi using Kickstart, this can be a problem since you are still required to manually hit enter before the installation actually begins. The question from a couple of my readers, is there a workaround for this?

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ESXi on Intel NUC 12 Pro (Wall Street Canyon)

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Many in the VMware Community, including myself, started with the classic 4x4 Intel NUC for running a VMware homelab. Over the years, this powerful little Intel NUC continues to enable a wide variety of new VMware use cases from running vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Tanzu and even vRealize (now Aria). It felt like it was just yesterday that I had switched from using an Apple Mac Mini to the latest Intel NUC (6th Generation) to build my new vSphere/vSAN Homelab, which was more than 6 years ago! 😲

While Intel continues to expand and grow their "NUC" portfolio to include many other form factors, the classic 4x4 design still has a special place for many people in the VMware community. The classic Intel NUC is not only small, portable but also extremely capable, especially with last few releases which makes this an ideal kit for those just getting started with a new VMware Homelab.

If you are in the market for an upgrade this year, definitely check out the latest refresh of this classic 4x4 design with Intel's recent launch of the Intel NUC 12 Pro, formally known as the Wall Street Canyon NUC.

Let's take a closer look at this new Intel NUC 😀

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