Windows 2008 R2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Solaris 10 64-bit virtual machines blue screen or kernel panic when running on ESXi 5.x with an Intel E5/E7/E3 v2 series processor

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
When running a virtual machine with Windows 2008 R2, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Solaris 10 64-bit on either ESXi, Workstation, or Fusion, you experience one of these symptoms:

• Windows 2008 R2 blue screen events:
  
  0x0000000a - IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
  0x0000001a - MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
  0x000000fc - ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY
  0x0000004e - PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
  0x00000050 - PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
  0x0000003B- SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

• Windows blue screen messages similar to:
  
  VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-2) NOT IMPLEMENTED d:/build/ob/bora-1895310/bora/vmcore/vmx/main/physMem.c:2877
   
• Solaris 10 64-bit kernel panic
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel panic
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel panic
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel panic
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel panic
• In the vmware.log file for the virtual machine (located in the virtual machine's home folder), if you are using Workstation and Fusion, you see entries similar to:
  
  | svga| I120: WinBSOD: (30) `Dumping physical memory to disk: 20 '
  | vcpu-2| I120: NOT_IMPLEMENTED d:/build/ob/bora-1895310/bora/vmcore/vmx/main/physMem.c:2877

Cause

At the time of publication (September 10, 2014), these processors are identified as being affected:

• Processors named as Intel Xeon Processor E5-#### v2, where #### is a 4-digit number, optionally followed by a letter.
• Processors named as Intel Xeon Processor E7-#### v2, where #### is a 4-digit number.
• Processors named as Intel Xeon Processor E3-12## v2, where ## is a 2-digit number, optionally followed by a letter.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion.

 

To resolve this issue, contact your vendor for an updated BIOS for your hardware and provide reference to the relevant Intel Errata:

• CA135 - A MOV to CR3 When EPT is Enabled May Lead to an Unexpected Page Fault or an Incorrect Page Translation in the Errata section of the Intel Xeon Processor E5 v2 Product Family Guide.
• CF124 - Incorrect Page Translation when EPT is enabled in the Errata section of the Intel Xeon Processor E7 v2 Product Family Guide.

Note: The preceding links were correct as of July 11, 2014. If you find a link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.


If there is no BIOS update available for your platform, use one of these options:

 

Upgrades:

This issue is resolved in:

• ESXi 5.1 Update 3, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.1 Update 3 Release Notes.
• ESXi 5.5 Update 2, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 Release Notes.

No resolution will be available for Workstation or Fusion.

For ESXi 5.0 hosts without access to an upgrade supplied by their hardware vendor, or whose hardware vendor has not yet produced an upgrade, an appropriate VIB is supplied by VMware and attached to this article. See the Existing ESXi installation using esxcli and async driver VIB file section in the Installing async drivers on VMware ESXi 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5 (2005205) to install the VIB.
 

Note: The preceding solutions are preferred as maintaining the hardware MMU mode helps to prevent degradation of the hosts processing power.

 

Software MMU:

To work around this issue when no BIOS update is available, change the virtual machines MMU mode on the affected host to Software.

Note: Using software MMU mode can have negative impact on the performance. Use the BIOS solution, whenever possible.


To change the virtual machines MMU mode on the affected host to Software:

1. Using Tech Support Mode, log in to the ESXi host. For more information, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x (1017910).
2. Open the /etc/vmware/config file using a text editor and add this line:
   
   monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"
    
3. Reboot or migrate the virtual machine to a different host.

If monitor.virtual_mmu is set in any of the .vmx files for the virtual machines, complete these additional actions:

 

1. Delete any values for monitor.virtual_mmu from the .vmx file of the virtual machine.
   
   Alternatively, modify all virtual machines using this PowerCLI script:
   
   Get-VM | Get-View | foreach {
   $spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
   $spec.flags = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineFlagInfo
   $spec.flags.virtualMMuUsage = "off"
   $spec.flags.virtualExecUsage = "hvOn"
   $taskMoRef = $_.ReconfigVM_Task($spec)
   }
   
    
2. Power cycle all virtual machines, or complete a vMotion migration to a host that has the monitor.virtual_mmu = software setting added to the /etc/vmware/config file.

Additional Information

 

Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x, and ESXi 6.x
How to download and install async drivers in ESXi 5.x/6.x
Intel E5/E7/E3 v2 シリーズのプロセッサを使用して ESXi 5.x で Windows 2008 R2 および Solaris 10 64 ビットの仮想マシンを実行するとブルー スクリーンまたはカーネル パニックが発生する
在使用 Intel E5/E7/E3 v2 系列处理器的 ESXi 5.x 上运行时，Windows 2008 R2、Red Hat Enterprise Linux 和 Solaris 10（64 位）虚拟机出现蓝屏或内核不稳定