ESXi host crashes with PSOD with Usage error in dlmalloc

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host crashes with a PSOD with "PANIC bora/vmkernel/main/dlmalloc.c:4944 - Usage error in dlmalloc".
• This issue observed in ESXi hosts with Dell RecoverPoint installed.
• The PSOD backtrace looks like below.

PanicvPanicInt@vmkernel#nover+0x327 stack: 0x453ad159b468, 0x0, 0x42000f6ff107, 0x432e6fe46100, 0x453ad159b390
Panic_NoSave@vmkernel#nover+0x4d stack: 0x453ad159b4c0, 0x453ad159b480, 0x0, 0x42000fca9a78, 0x1350
DLM_free@vmkernel#nover+0x242 stack: 0x432e6fe461b0, 0x42000f743c1e, 0x431692401297, 0x7ad, 0x0
Heap_Free@vmkernel#nover+0xba stack: 0x0, 0x432e6fe461b0, 0x45c00e8dd0b0, 0x453aa459f000, 0x824
UserSemaFDClose@vmkernel#nover+0x42 stack: 0x0, 0x42000fab982c, 0x431692401220, 0x431692401284, 0x0
UserObj_ReleaseWithoutCartel@vmkernel#nover+0x10 stack: 0x0, 0x42000fabd6c1, 0x453ad159b5e8, 0x45c00e8dd0b0, 0x0
UserObj_VsiFdGet@vmkernel#nover+0xd1 stack: 0x0, 0x453ad159b5e8, 0x431692401220, 0x42000fad32d2, 0x3000000000
UserVsi_Cartel_Fd_FdsGet@vmkernel#nover+0xb2 stack: 0x453aa459f000, 0x432fbf802010, 0x42000fad3220, 0x0, 0x520
VSI_GetInfo@vmkernel#nover+0x28f stack: 0x41ffcf647960, 0x0, 0x800000000, 0x824, 0x6610cec7d0
UW64VMKSyscallUnpackVSI_Get@vmkernel#nover+0x114 stack: 0x453a2c81f140, 0x453ad159b6a0, 0x520, 0x6610cec701, 0xf4ddafaac2d165
User_UWVMK64SyscallHandler@vmkernel#nover+0x183 stack: 0x1bf4ddafaac2d165, 0x6610cec7d0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x3b7306cbb70
SyscallUWVMK64@vmkernel#nover+0x90 stack: 0x0, 0xbad000e, 0x6651563c70, 0x1bf4ddafaac2d165, 0x0
ESC[45mESC[33;1mVMware ESXi 7.0.3 [Releasebuild-23794027 x86_64]ESC[0mPANIC bora/vmkernel/main/dlmalloc.c:4944 - Usage error in dlmalloc

Environment

VMware ESXi 7.x
VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

The cause of the PSOD is a race condition between VSI file descriptor cleanup and the handling of userSemaFD objects.

Resolution

The issue is addressed in ESX 8.0 P05. 

Workaround:

To remediate the issue, consider uninstalling the VIB shipped with lsof utility after discussing with Dell RecoverPoint team.