ESXi host fails with PSOD (purple screen of death) when using Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4, E7 v4, and D-1500 families

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides method to resolve the issue if ESXi host fails with PSOD (purple screen of death) when using Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4, E7 v4, and D-1500 families.

Symptoms:

When running a supported version of ESXi host with Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4, E7 v4, and D-1500 families, you may experience these symptoms:

• The ESXi host fails with this purple diagnostic screen (PSOD)
• The backtrace information is missing in the screen
• In the PSOD screen, you see error similar to:
  
  <timestamp>.549Z cpu58:42053 )@BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 42053:vmm7:My_VM IP 0x410016bb8000 addr 0x410016bb8000 PTEs:0x10001c023;0x8000010023;0x80000e5023;0x800000408841e063;
  2016-07-27T13:14:04.549Z cpu58:42053) Code start: 0x418018000000 VMK uptime: 2:04:41:19.840
  2016-07-27T13:14:04.552Z cpu58:42053) base fs=0x0 gs=0x41804e800000 Kgs=0x0

Note: This log excerpt is an example. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

 

This issue can manifest in many ways. For more information on entries you may see in the backtrace, see the Additional information section.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Cause

Resolution

This is a known hardware issue affecting supported versions of ESXi host with Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4, E7 v4, and D-1500 families. This is a not a VMware issue.

 

To resolve this issue, upgrade the system BIOS (firmware) to a version which provides the following microcode patch revision level for the associated Intel Xeon processors:

 

CPU Family	CPUID Model (Stepping)	Required Microcode Patch Revision	Supported ESXi Version
Intel Xeon E5-2600-v4 Intel Xeon E5-4600-v4	0x406F1 (B0 Stepping)	0x0b00001b or later	ESXi 5.5 U3b or later ESXi 6.0 U1b or later ESXi 6.5 GA or later
Intel Xeon E7-8800-v4 Intel Xeon E7-4800-v4	0x406F1 (B0 Stepping)	0x0b00001b or later	ESXi 6.0 U1b or later ESXi 6.5 GA or later
Intel Xeon D-1500	0x50663 (V2 Stepping)	0x0700000c or later	ESXi 6.0 U1b or later ESXi 6.5 GA or later
Intel Xeon D-1500	0x50664 (Y0 Stepping)	0x0f00000a or later	ESXi 6.0 U1b or later ESXi 6.5 GA or later

 

For more information, contact your hardware vendor.

Additional Information

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Backtrace

 

The backtrace can also contain entries after Code start: line similar to:

• SP_WaitLockIRQ
  SPLockIRQWork
  SPUnlockIRQWork
  VsanSparseUpdateCache
  IpfixPCInit
  IpfixPortInsert
  
  
• Panic_Exception
  WorldletBHHandler
  Timer_BHHandler
  TimerRecomputeInterrupt
  BH_DrainAndDisableInterrupts
  IDT_IntrHandler
  gate_entry_
  Power_HaltPCPU
  CpuSchedIdleLoopInt
  CpuSchedDispatch
  CpuSchedWait
  CpuSched_VcpuHalt
  CpuSched_VcpuMigrateBestPcpu
  CpuSchedMarkReschedule
  CpuSchedVcpuSetRunState
  VMMVMKCall_Call
  CpuSchedRebalance_PcpuMigrateIdle
  IntrCookie_DoInterrupt
  Panicvpanicint
  Panic_NoSave