Boot error: Shutting down firmware services... error after upgrading to VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 3

Ivo Beerens
Date : September 18, 2019
Categories : esxi
Tags : esxi-2 ,VMware

After upgrading one of my home lab servers to VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 3, I’ve got the following error when trying to boot:

Shutting down firmware services…
Page allocation error: Out of resources
Failed to shutdown the boot services.
Unrecoverable error

After changing the boot mode from UEFI to “legacy only” in the BIOS, the ESXi host booted without the error.

VMware has confirmed that this is a bug. There is VMware community thread (link ) about this bug and two other workarounds. When there will be a permanent fix available is unclear at the moment.