vCenter Server vpxd service crashed with backtrace - CheckPortTeamingWithMirror

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The vpxd service on vCenter Server crashes, producing a core.vpxd-worker file.
• Messages in /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log similar to the following immediately precede the crash:
  
  yyyy-mm-ddT00:00:00.000-00:00 info vpxd[50262] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=lro-########-######b5] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-###### -- dvs-## -- vim.DistributedVirtualSwitch.addPortgroups

• /var/core/core.vpxd-worker backtrace similar to this:

  Vpxd::Vds::Validate::CheckPortTeamingWithMirror (spec=<optimized out>, dvsConfig=dvsConfig@entry=0x7f8c04416c70) at bora/vpx/vpxd/dvs/core/validate.cpp:3046
warning: 3046    bora/vpx/vpxd/dvs/core/validate.cpp: No such file or directory
 
_sourcePortReceived = {
    _ptr = 0x7f8c04228cb0
},
_destinationPort = {
    _ptr = 0x0     
},

"_destinationPort = {_ptr = 0x0}" can be found which indicates nullptr.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

A vpxd crash is observed during the addPortgroups task, specifically in the CheckPortTeamingWithMirror function, when vspanDestPort is a nullptr.

Resolution

Following the steps below to confirm which one of the mirror session destinations is unset.

1. Access vCenter mob: https://<VC_IP/FQDN>/mob/?moid=dvs-<problematic-dvs-moid-in-vpxd.log>&doPath=Config
2. There might be multiple entries, click them one by one and check the "destinationPort"
   
   Data Object Type: VMwareVspanSession
Parent Managed Object ID: dvs-<problematic-dvs-moid-in-vpxd.log>
Property Path: config.vspanSession["0"] 
Properties
NAME                                 TYPE                       VALUE
description                         string                      Unset
destinationPort                  VMwareVspanPort                Unset 
enabled                             boolean                     false


3. If the 'VMwareVspanPort' value is unset, recreate or delete the associated port mirror session. For unused port mirroring sessions, it is recommended to delete them.
   Note: Please capture a screenshot of the port mirroring session configuration before deleting it.

Additional Information

vpxd core dump is not generated after updating vCenter to 7.0U3 or later