VM Crashes shortly after vMotion

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

The vmkernel logs on ESXi show that the VM crashes shortly after a vMotion: 

Location of logs on ESXi: /var/log/vmkernel.log

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS]  In(###) Hostd[######]: [Originator@#### sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/<volume_name>/<VM_Name>/<VM_Name>.vmx opID=CdrsLoadBalancer-############# sid=####### user=vpxuser:<no user>] VMotionPrepare (###############): Sending 'from' srcIp=####:###:###:#:####:##:####:#### dstIp=####:###:###:#:####:##:####:####, type=1, encryptedVMotion=true, remoteThumbprint=##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##:##, srcLoggingIp=, dstLoggingIp=, ftPrimaryIp=, ftSecondaryIp=, srcMgmtIp=<Source_ESXi IP Address>, dstMgmtIp=<Destination ESXi IP Address>, dstVmDirPath=/vmfs/volumes/<volume_name>/<VM_Name>/, dstVmFileName=<VM_Name>.vmx, disksUpdated=false

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] In(###) vmkernel: cpu##:#######)UserDump: ####: vmx: Dumping cartel ####### (from world #######) to file /vmfs/volumes/<volume_name>/<VM_Name>/vmx-zdump.001 ...

Environment

ESXi 8.x 

vCenter 8.x 

Cause

VMX crashes could be due to a variety of hardware or software issues. Understanding the cause of a VMX crash may require Broadcom to analyze the memory dump (vmx-zdump) created during the VM crash.

Resolution

To root cause a VMX crash, contact Broadcom Support for further analysis.