Azure Local on VMware ESXi workaround ECC memory check

In the latest version of Azure Local OS (formerly known as Azure Stack HCI) Microsoft has added a hardware memory check to check if memory type is ECC memory. This check is performed by the AzStackHci.EnvironmentChecker module which is update to version 1.2100.2845.573.

When running inside a VMware VM memory isn't reported as being ECC memory so the Hardware Environment check will fail on this.?

We cant install an older version of the module because the hardware checker isn't using the standard module but uses the module in C:\NugetStore\AzStackHci.EnvironmentChecker.Deploy.1.2100.2845.573

The circumvent the check we need to alter it, but we cant alter the powershell script itself because it is signed.

However we can change an XML file that contains a list of all checks to be performed so that the hardware check is skipped (replaced by a check that succeeds)

Before implementing this workaround make sure the only hardware validation error is the memory check for ECC.

Please manually run? Invoke-AzStackHciHardwareValidation on the Azure Stack node to make sure!

To implement the workaround please follow the following steps on the Azure Local node:

• Start a powershell session using option 15 of the sconfig menu
• Open the file C:\NugetStore\AzStackHci.EnvironmentChecker.Deploy.1.2100.2845.573\content\Roles\EnvironmentValidator\role.xml in notepad
• Make the following change to line 37:

<Task RolePath="Cloud\Infrastructure\EnvironmentValidator" InterfaceType="ValidateHardware" />        

Into

<Task RolePath="Cloud\Infrastructure\EnvironmentValidator" InterfaceType="ValidateSBEHealth" />        

After this change you can retry the Azure Stack HCI deployment and the Hardware check will succeed.