Virtual machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash or hang on hosts with Intel CPUs

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Virtual Machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash during installation or during power-on with a crash in the intel_powerclamp driver.
• This issue has been reported with Ubuntu 16.10, but it is a generic Linux kernel issue.

Resolution

VMware is aware of the issue.

Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround:

To workaround the issue, blacklist the intel_powerclamp driver .

To blacklist the driver:

Add the kernel command-line option modprobe.blacklist=intel_powerclamp to the guest Operating System default grub configuration or add it directly at the grub menu during boot.