PSOD error: “VMKAPI-char-metadata heap at maximum” in the ESXi 6.5

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

 

• ESXi 6.5 host fails with a purple diagnostic screen
• In the purple diagnostic screen, you see back traces similar to:

 

#PF Exception 14 in world 67128:VSAN_0x43115 IP 0x41800fd021e9 addr 0x18

 

In Host logs:

 

 

2019-05-04T05:56:30.612Z cpu67:267074149)WARNING: Heap: 3534: Heap VMKAPI-char-metadata already at its maximum size. Cannot expand.

2019-05-04T05:55:53.843Z cpu44:267579836)TPM FixedMem: start = 0xfed40000, end = 0xfed44fff, write protect = 0

2019-05-04T05:55:54.937Z cpu86:267579836)TPM FixedMem: start = 0xfed40000, end = 0xfed44fff, write protect = 0

2019-05-04T05:55:55.150Z cpu3:267350630 opID=96691161)World: 12235: VC opID refresh-b546-fa7c maps to vmkernel opID 96691161

2019-05-04T05:55:55.150Z cpu3:267350630 opID=96691161)User: 3089: hostd-worker: wantCoreDump:hostd-worker signal:6 exitCode:0 coredump:enabled

 

2019-04-16T07:06:29.088Z cpu20:66264)WARNING: make_dev:1598: Error registering chardev for usb0102: Failure

2019-04-16T07:06:29.088Z cpu20:66264)WARNING: make_dev:1598: Error registering chardev for usb0103: Failure

2019-04-16T07:06:29.088Z cpu20:66264)WARNING: make_dev:1598: Error registering chardev for usb0104: Failure

2019-04-16T07:06:29.088Z cpu20:66264)WARNING: make_dev:1598: Error registering chardev for usb0105: Failure

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Cause

This issue occurs due to the following reason:

• A slow memory leak in the VMKAPI-char-metadata heap.

 

Impact - When the heap memory usage is used up the host will PSOD.

 

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware ESXi 6.5, Patch Release ESXi650-201811002 . For more information, see  https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/esxi650-201811002.html