Ring size change with storage configured on qfle3 driver can lead to system crash

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
The default ring size on qfle3 driver is 2048. There are command line options using esxcli for users to configure non-default ring sizes in some specific configurations and scenarios. However, when storage is configured on these adapters and the default ring size if changed, qfle3 driver does not handle that correctly. During unload, driver tries to apply the non-default value when freeing the slow path storage rings; which can lead to failures such as system crash.

Resolution

For ESXi 6.7:
     

The fix is in the async qfle3 driver version 1.0.69.1 (OEM) and higher for ESXi 6.7. The most up to date driver package is available here at VMware Downloads.

This fix will also go into future inbox qfle3 driver versions to be released in future 6.7 update releases.

 

 

For ESXi 6.5:
 

The fix is in the async qfle3 driver version 1.0.77.3 (OEM) and higher for ESXi 6.5. The most up to date driver package is available here at VMware Downloads.

This fix will also go into future inbox qfle3 driver versions to be released in future 6.5 update releases.

Workaround:
There are two possible workarounds for this issue, either:
1) Use default ring size on qfle3 when storage is configured, OR
2) Revert to bnx2x driver, as explained in KB 52044