PSOD on host with recursive panic

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host crashes with a PSOD, the crash screen contains a backtrace similar to this example:
  

  PCPU ##: no heartbeat (0/3 IPIs received)

  PanicvPanicInt
  Panic_WithBacktrace
  Heartbeat_DetectCPULockups
  TimerWheelHandler
  Timer_BHHandler
  BH_DrainAndDisableInterrupts
  CpuSchedDispatch
  CpuSchedWait
  CpuSchedVcpuHaltWork
  VMMVMKCall_Call
  VMKVMM_ArchEnterVMKernel

  Possible hardware problem: 1 PCPU(s) [##] did not respond to NMI
  Recursive panic (cpu ##, world #####, depth x): ip=###.###.###.### randomOff=#######:
  #PF Exception 14 in world #####:vnn#:####### IP ####### addr #######

   

• vmkernel core dump file (vmkernel-zdump) is not generated.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.3

Cause

The system encountered a recursive panic. The PSOD is caused as the PCPU did not update the pcpu heartbeat for a while and it is unresponsive to NMI.

Resolution

1. The recursive panic is usually caused by hardware problem. Please contact the hardware vendor to diagnose the hardware, especially around the PCPU.
2. It is recommended to update the BIOS to the latest version.