Performance charts in vSphere Client show frequent CPU usage spikes for ESXi 7.0 even when there are no virtual machines are running
search cancel

Performance charts in vSphere Client show frequent CPU usage spikes for ESXi 7.0 even when there are no virtual machines are running

book

Article ID: 326233

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
  • Performance charts in vSphere Client show frequent CPU usage spikes for ESXi 7.0 even when there are no virtual machines are running
  • when looking at Advanced Performance > View: System, you see that the spikes are caused by host/system
  • when looking at the esxtop CPU tab ("c"), expanding the system world ("e" > "1") and sorting by %RUN ("R"), you find next to the idle worlds ("IDLEx"), a group named IPMI on top of the list


Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

This is a rare issue, which can affect ESXi 7.0 when running on AMD EPYC CPUs.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution. VMware engineering is aware of this issue.
Please subscribe to this article, using the [SUBSCRIBE] button in the top right corner of this article, to be made aware when a fix has been made available.


Workaround:
To work around this issue, reduce the polling rate for the ipmi module using the following command:
# esxcfg-module --set-options "regMaxPolls=200000 regPollIntrvUs=4" ipmi

Afterwards reboot the host to apply the change.

The default values for the options are:
regMaxPolls=400000
regPollIntrvUs=2

Should you find that the issue persists despite making this change, please reset both options to their default values:
# esxcfg-module --set-options "regMaxPolls=400000 regPollIntrvUs=2" ipmi

Reboot the host again to apply the change, then please file a support request with the VMware Support.


Additional Information

For more information on how to change module options, please see Configuring advanced driver module parameters in ESX/ESXi (1017588)