Troubleshooting an Elastic Metal server blocked installation

Reviewed on August 11, 2025

Problem

Your Scaleway Elastic Metal server installation is blocked and cannot proceed.

Symptoms

• The installation process remains stuck at a certain percentage.
• You receive an error message stating that the installation has failed.
• The server does not boot into the selected operating system after installation.
• The installation does not start even after initiating it from the console.

Possible causes

• The server is still in rescue mode.
• A hardware issue affecting the installation.
• The chosen operating system is incompatible with the server configuration.
• Network connectivity issues preventing the installation process.
• A temporary issue on Scaleway’s infrastructure.

Solution

Check if there is a current outage or maintenance ongoing

• Check the Scaleway status website to see if there are any issues or maintenance tasks ongoing.

Try a different operating system

• If the installation fails repeatedly, try selecting a different OS from the Scaleway console.
• Ensure the chosen OS is compatible with your hardware.

Check the screen output of the server

• If your server provides remote access to its peripherals, connect to the server to check the screen output and determine where the installation process is blocked.
• If required, press a key on your keyboard to restart the installation.

Check if the server is in rescue mode

• Log in to the Scaleway console and navigate to your Elastic Metal server.
• Check if the server is in rescue mode.
• If it is, reboot the server into normal mode before retrying the installation.

Inspect server logs

• Reboot the server into rescue mode.
• Use journalctl -xe or dmesg to check for potential hardware-related errors.
• Run a disk check using commands such as smartctl, fsck, or badblocks to diagnose potential issues. You can also refer to this guide for additional troubleshooting steps.

Contact Scaleway Support

• If the issue persists, contact Scaleway Support with details of the failure.
• Provide logs, screenshots, and your server ID for faster diagnosis.