As explained in Machine requirements, CPUs manufactured before 2012 (that is, processors earlier than Intel Ivy Bridge and Xeon E5 v2) do not support the RDRAND instruction. If the VMware vSphere host runs one of these old CPUs:
- Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
- Click Add New Device and select Random Number Generator.
- Confirm the device is added.
This configuration exposes /dev/hwrng to the guest OS, allowing the rngd service to start.
Without either RDRAND support or an RNG device, the installation cannot proceed.