Driver load fails with an error "WARNING: Elf: ParseModuleParams:894: Module parameter ### is not valid for module ###"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When you modify the driver module parameter to value other than default value, you experience the below symptoms:

• When you upgrade driver to a higher version, module parameter gets removed.
   
• When you reboot the ESXi host, the upgraded driver fails to load with an error message similar to:
  
  WARNING: Elf: ParseModuleParams:894: Module parameter ### is not valid for module ###.

Cause

Setting the parameters using the esxcli command writes the parameter to esx.conf file. Therefore, on any consequent load of the same module using esxcli, if no parameters are provided to the command, system will read the parameter options from esx.conf file.
 
This issue occurs because the upgraded driver does not have that parameter anymore.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware ESXi 5.5 and later.

 

Currently, there is no resolution.

 

To work around this issue, clear the module parameter using the below command to allow the updated driver to load:

esxcli system module parameters set -p "" -m ###

Note: Insert the module name in place of ###.