ESXi 6.5 host fails with a PSOD (purple screen of death): pcpu 45 Heartbeat NMI

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• ESXi 6.5 host fails with a PSOD (purple screen of death):
  
  pcpu 45 Heartbeat NMI
   
• You see backtrace similar to:
  
  2017-02-08T20:06:33.419Z cpu11:68368)@BlueScreen: PCPU 45: no heartbeat (3/3 IPIs received)
2017-02-08T20:06:33.419Z cpu11:68368)Code start: 0x418022e00000 VMK uptime: 42:06:00:53.854
2017-02-08T20:06:33.419Z cpu11:68368)Saved backtrace from: pcpu 45 Heartbeat NMI
2017-02-08T20:06:33.420Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9adf0:[0x418023c41a6f]Res6MemLockRCList@esx#nover+0x13 stack: 0x580
2017-02-08T20:06:33.420Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9ae20:[0x418023c41bf5]Res6MemLockRC@esx#nover+0x29 stack: 0x43086ccea2c8
2017-02-08T20:06:33.420Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9ae40:[0x418023c46136]Res6AffMgr_GetCluster@esx#nover+0x49e stack: 0x430400000000
2017-02-08T20:06:33.421Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9af70:[0x418023c32789]Res3GetIntVMFS6@esx#nover+0x115 stack: 0x4391d0f9b0f0
2017-02-08T20:06:33.421Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9b770:[0x418023c330b4]Res3Get64VMFS6@esx#nover+0x40 stack: 0x0
2017-02-08T20:06:33.421Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9b7b0:[0x418023c0c92f]Fil3_AllocateBlocksVMFS6@esx#nover+0x2d7 stack: 0x4391d0f9b7ec
2017-02-08T20:06:33.422Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9b860:[0x418023c12249]Fil3PlugFileHoleIntVMFS6@esx#nover+0x391 stack: 0x1
2017-02-08T20:06:33.422Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9b9d0:[0x418023c12afe]Fil3_PlugFileHoleTxnVMFS6@esx#nover+0x5a stack: 0x0
2017-02-08T20:06:33.422Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9ba50:[0x418023bed8bc]Fil3_FileIO@esx#nover+0xa58 stack: 0x4391d0f9bc30
2017-02-08T20:06:33.422Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9bdc0:[0x418023bee7a0]Fil3_FileIOWithRetry@esx#nover+0xec stack: 0x1c880c46eb2a75
2017-02-08T20:06:33.423Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9be60:[0x418022e3d063]FSSVec_FileIO@vmkernel#nover+0x97 stack: 0x101b00fe
2017-02-08T20:06:33.423Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9beb0:[0x418022e360b5]FSSFileIO@vmkernel#nover+0x15d stack: 0x430500000001
2017-02-08T20:06:33.423Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9bf00:[0x418022e36156]FSS_AsyncFileIO@vmkernel#nover+0xe stack: 0xffffffff
2017-02-08T20:06:33.424Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9bf20:[0x418022e59944]LibAIODoAsyncIO@vmkernel#nover+0x6c stack: 0x80000036
2017-02-08T20:06:33.424Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9bf50:[0x418022ec8fdd]helpFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x3c5 stack: 0x4306507b6040
2017-02-08T20:06:33.424Z cpu11:68368)0x4391d0f9bfe0:[0x4180230c8bd5]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0x99 stack: 0x0
   

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESXi 6.5 U1. Patch is available at Broadcom Downloads ESXi 6.5 U1