Virtual machines abruptly shut down with an error similar to: MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:EPT misconfiguration

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

This article describes a specific issue. If you experience all of the above symptoms, consult the sections below. If you experience some but not all of these symptoms, your issue is not related to this article. Search for your symptoms in the Knowledge Base, see Determining why a virtual machine was powered off or restarted (1019064) for a related issue, or file a Support Request. For more information, see Filing a Support Request in Customer Connect (2006985).

Symptoms:

• A virtual machine shuts down abruptly.
• The virtual machine logs contain events similar to:
  
  MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:EPT misconfiguration: PA abc123abc
Core dump with build build-260247
Writing monitor corefile "/vmfs/volumes/abc123ab-abc123ab-abcd-abc123abc123/VirtualMachine01/vmware64-core0.gz"
CoreDump: dumping core with superuser privileges

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi/ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0/5.1.

To resolve this issue, upgrade the system BIOS or firmware. For more information, review the hardware vendor's advisory or BIOS release notes:

• HP customer advisory c03898077 and system ROM dated 9/8/2013 or later.
• IBM RETAIN tip H21370 and UFI firmware dated August 2013 or later.
• Dell BIOS 2.0.19 for Dell PowerEdge R720(-xd) systems dated 9/26/2013 or later.
• Dell BIOS 2.9.0 for Dell PowerEdge R910 systems dated 9/26/2013 or later.
• Dell BIOS 6.4.0 for Dell PowerEdge M610(x) systems dated 10/9/2013 or later.
• Dell BIOS 2.2.2 for Dell PowerEdge R620 systems dated 03/06/2014 or later.
• Cisco BIOS 2.1(3a) for Cisco UCS B-Series systems dated 09/18/2013 or later.

Note: The preceding links were correct as of may 27, 2014. If you find a link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Workaround

To work around this issue on your version of ESXi/ESX when you cannot upgrade the BIOS on the server, install the applicable patch to disable Intel FlexPriority.

To disable Intel FlexPriority, install one of these patches:

• For systems running ESXi 5.0/5.1
  
  VMware has released a patch which prevents the failure from occurring. No failures have been observed with FlexPriority disabled. For more information, see the release notes:
  
  
  • VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch ESXi500-201305401-BG: Updates esx-base (2051212)
  • VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch ESXi510-201305401-BG: Updates esx-base (2051208)
  
  Note: If the system had hyperthreading previously disabled as a workaround, re-enable it.
  
  
• For systems running ESXi/ESX 4.0/4.1
  
  VMware has released a patch which prevents the failure from occurring. No failures have been observed with FlexPriority disabled. For more information, see the release notes:
  
  
  • VMware ESXi 4.0, Patch Release ESXi400-201310001 (2059496)
  • VMware ESX 4.0, Patch Release ESX400-201310001 (2059495)
  • VMware ESXi 4.1, Patch Release ESXi410-201307001 (2053396)
  • VMware ESX 4.1, Patch Release ESX410-201307001 (2053393)
  
  Note: If the system had hyperthreading previously disabled as a workaround, re-enable it.

Additional Information

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Understanding Exception 13 and Exception 14 purple diagnostic screen events in ESX 3.x/4.x and ESXi 3.x/4.x/5.x/6.x
How to file a Support Request in Customer Connect
VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch ESXi510-201305401-BG: Updates esx-base
VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch ESXi500-201305401-BG: Updates esx-base
VMware ESX 4.1, Patch Release ESX410-201307001
VMware ESXi 4.1, Patch Release ESXi410-201307001
VMware ESX 4.0, Patch Release ESX400-201310001
VMware ESXi 4.0, Patch Release ESXi400-201310001
虚拟机突然关闭并显示类似于以下内容的错误消息：监视器不稳定: vcpu-0:EPT 配置错误 (MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:EPT misconfiguration)