PSOD (Purple Screen of Death) referencing Machine Check Exception (MCE)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When a PSOD (Purple Screen of Death) occurs on an ESXI host you may see a reference to "Machine Check Exception".

In the vmkernel.log in /var/run/log/, the below log snippet is observed:

<YYYY-MM-DD>T<time> cpu51:2097203)VMware ESXi 7.0.3 [Releasebuild-22348816 x86_64]
Machine Check Exception on PCPUXX in world 111111:idle51
System has encountered a Hardware Error - Please contact the hardware vendor

 

Environment

ESXi 6.7

ESXI 7.0

ESXI 8.0

Cause

What is Machine-Check Exception (MCE)?

Machine-Check architecture is a mechanism within the CPU to detect and report hardware problems. When a problem is detected, a Machine-Check Exception (MCE) error is thrown. If a purple diagnostic screen is displayed along with the machine error, then the problem is caused by the hardware. There is no other way for a Machine-Check Exception error to occur.

In the event that the system fails and displays the purple diagnostic screen, take a screenshot of the on-screen image, then reboot the server in an attempt to recover the host and contact your hardware vendor. 

Resolution

Engage the hardware vendor to investigate the MCE errors.