Hosts fails with a purple diagnostic screen when retrieving flows for ALG enabled protocols

Products

• VMware NSX Networking
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After upgrading NSX for vSphere 6.2.4 to 6.3.0 with Flow Monitoring enabled in the environment, you experience these symptoms:

• ESXi host experiences a purple diagnostic screen
• The backtrace contains entries similar to:
  
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPConvertPfToFlowRecord@(vsip)#<None>+0x1a7
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPConversionGetConnectionStat@(vsip)#<None>+0x2b7
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPToPFIoctl@(vsip)#<None>+0x97
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPFlowGetRecordsForFilter@(vsip)#<None>+0x209
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPDVFGetFiltersByVNIC@(vsip)#<None>+0x1f4
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPFlowGetRecords@(vsip)#<None>+0x234
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPIoctlFlowData@(vsip)#<None>+0x98
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPIoctlImpl@(vsip)#<None>+0x5b
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VSIPCharDevIoctl@(vsip)#<None>+0x36
  0xnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnn]VMKAPICharDevDevfsWrapIoctl@vmkernel#nover+0x74
  
  Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.x

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.2, available at VMware Downloads

To work around this issue if you do not want to upgrade, disable flow monitoring related features:

• IPFix
• LiveFlow
• Application Rule Manager
• Flow monitoring- global flow collection