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Creating a local VMFS datastore after a fresh installation of ESXi 5.x fails with the error: Error during the configuration of the host:Failed to update the disk partition information (2037192)

Symptoms

After a fresh installation of ESXi 5.x, you are unable to create a local VMFS datastore on the host.
Creating a local VMFS datastore on the ESXi 5.x host fails
In the Datastore Creation wizard, you see the error:

Error during the configuration of the host:Failed to update the disk partition information
This issue is seen to occur on, but is not restricted to, DELL PowerEdge R 720 servers
This issue occurs if the host is installed or booting from a USB key

Cause

This issue occurs if there are two partitions on the local disk and the host cannot delete these partitions to create a VMFS partition.

To determine if there are already two partitions on the local disk, run this command:

~ # fdisk -lu

You should see an output similar to:

Disk /dev/disks/naa.12345678901234567890123456789012: 299.4 GB, 299439751168 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36404 cylinders, total 584843264 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

                                           Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks Id System
/dev/disks/naa.12345678901234567890123456789012p1            63     80324     40131   de Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/disks/naa.12345678901234567890123456789012p2   *     81920   4276223   2097152    c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary

Resolution

To resolve this issue, remove the two partitions from the local disk.

To remove the partitions, run this command and answer the queries as mentioned:

~ # fdisk -u /dev/disks/naa.12345678901234567890123456789012

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 36404.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 2

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
~ #

To confirm that the partitions are deleted, run this command:

~ # fdisk -lu

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