PSOD: #PF Exception 14 in world #######:tq:qlnativef IP 0x########## addr 0x8

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• An ESXi host crashed with a PSOD.
• The message seen on the PSOD is similar to the following:
  

  @BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world #######:tq:qlnativef IP 0x########## addr 0x8
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.671Z cpu73:2098070)0x1234:[0x1234]qlnativefcTimer@(qlnativefc)#<None>+0x0 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.671Z cpu73:2098070)0x1234:[0x1234]VmkTimerQueueWorldFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x0 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.671Z cpu73:2098070)0x1234:[0x1234]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0x0 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.671Z cpu73:2098070)0x1234:[0x1234]Debug_IsInitialized@vmkernel#nover+0x0 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0

Environment

ESXi 7.x
ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue is caused by the VMID module within the qlnativefc driver, which is enabled by default starting in version 5.3.81.2.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in qlnativefc driver version 5.4.84.0 and later.

Note: Before updating the qlnativefc driver to 5.4.84.0, verify your ESXi version, as this driver is only compatible with ESXi 8.0 U3 and later.

Workaround

Before executing the workaround, read the following documentation to determine if the VMID feature can be safely disabled in your environment:

• Marvell® Fibre Channel and Converged Network Adapters for VMware® 7.0 and 8.0
  
  
• VMID Enablement for Fibre Channel (FC) Storage – Benefits & Performance

Steps to disable the VMID module:

1. Put the host into maintenance mode.

2. SSH to the ESXi host and run the following command to check the current module status:

   esxcfg-module -g qlnativefc
   

   Expected output:

   qlnativefc enabled = 1 options = ''
   

3. Run the following command to disable VMID on the adapter:

   esxcfg-module -s "ql2xvmidsupport=0" qlnativefc
   

4. Run the following command to verify the changes:

   esxcfg-module -g qlnativefc
   

   Expected output:

   qlnativefc enabled = 1 options = 'ql2xvmidsupport=0'
   

5. Reboot the ESXi host.

6. Run the module command again to ensure that the module has been successfully disabled:

   esxcfg-module -g qlnativefc