ESXi host is failing with a Purple Diagnostic Screen (PSOD) displaying "PF Exception 14" (Page Fault) within the usbus (USB Bus) world while utilizing USB passthrough features

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The ESXi host fails with a purple diagnostic screen (PSOD). The backtrace contains entries indicating a failure in the USB subsystem (usbus) with a Page Fault (PF Exception 14).
You observe stack trace entries similar to the following:

#PF Exception 14 in world ##### :usbus1 IP #x######d addr #x###
*PCPU84:#####/usbus1
PCPU 0: VVVSUVSVVVIVUVVUSVSVVVVVVSIUSVUSSUVVUSSVSUVSSVVSVSVSVVVVUVSVSV
PCPU 64: VSUSVSVSVSVSVVVIVUUVSVVUSSVIIVSV
0x####### : [0x#######]xhci_transfer_insert@(vmkusb)#<None>+0x17d stack: 0x#######
0x####### : [0x#######9]xhci_conf igure_msg@(vmkusb)#<None>+0x1c6 stack: 0x#######
0x#######: [0x#######]usb_process@(vnkusb)#<None>+0x## stack: 0x#######
0x####### ## : [0x#######]vnkWor 1dFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x49 stack: 0x#######
0x####### : [0x#######]CpuSched_StartWor 1d@vmkernel#nover+0x## stack: 0x0
0x#######: [0x####### ]Debug_IsInitialized@vmkernel#nover+0xc stack: 0x0
base fs=0x0 gs=0x####### Kgs=0x0
No place on disk to dump data.
Finalized dump header (15/15) FileDump: Successful.
No port for remote debugger.

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Cause

This issue occurs because a USB thread accessed an invalid memory address for Direct Memory Access (DMA), which was not properly initialized or allocated.
Specifically, this is caused by a hardware failure or communication timeout of a USB device configured for passthrough. At the time of the crash, the USB device failed to connect or respond correctly to the xHCI controller, leading to the panic.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must identify the faulty USB device and replace it.
Identify the faulty USB device. Since the host has crashed, you must identify which device was in use by checking the Virtual Machine configurations or reviewing historical logs.

• Identify VMs with USB Passthrough:
  • Log in to vCenter Server or the ESXi Host Client.
  • Review the Edit Settings configuration of VMs currently running on the affected host.
  • Look for devices listed as Host USB Device or USB Passthrough.
    
    
• From the vmkernel.log,  grep -i "usb" /var/run/logvmkernel.log And you may see the following entries
  
    vmkernel: cpu73:2098838)Starting service usbarbitrator
  vmkernel: cpu73:2098838)Activating Jumpstart plugin usbarbitrator.
  vmkernel: cpu28:2099030)vmkusb: umass_ioctl:3872: umass_ioctl: Skip reserved devices: vmhba32
  vmkernel: cpu73:2098838)Jumpstart plugin usbarbitrator activated.
  vmkwarning: cpu6:2098196)WARNING: vmkusb: udev 0x43128c0a3028, endpoint 0x82: invalid state 5: Failure
  vmkwarning: cpu6:2098196)WARNING: vmkusb: udev 0x43128c0a3028, endpoint 0x0: invalid state 5: Failure