ESXi Host Alarm regarding pqisrc_heartbeat_timer_handler

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The following alarm triggers:
  alarm.HostErrorAlarm : pqisrc_heartbeat_timer_handler:0172: Handler called early at time HH:MM:18, instead of expected time HH:MM:19
  
  
• The following log is recorded in /var/run/log/vmkwarning.log.
  pqisrc_heartbeat_timer_handler:0170: Handler called early at time HH:MM:32, instead of expected time HH:MM:33. Schedule is set for 10 seconds.
  
  
• Logs may occasionally be output where time synchronization was momentarily lost.

Environment

VMware vSphere 7.x
VMware vSphere 8.x

Cause

This is a vCenter default alarm when the controller is locked up for a second and the driver-to-controller heartbeat is not received in time.

Happens mainly on HP Enterprise servers.

SAS driver is for HPE Smart PQI controllers.

It is HPE to inform the customer if it is used elsewhere or has other dependencies.

Resolution

Reset the the alarm to green when triggered is the only option for this alert to disappear.

Additional Information

This log messages are harmless and can be ignored. However, removing them is not easy because the log is hard-coded at the ALERT level by SmartPQI driver.

This is nothing related to NTP and we don't have an option to suppress or stop these alarms from coming.