ESXi host fails with a purple diagnostic screen with messages such as #PF Exception 14 in world XXXXXXX:vmknvmeGener

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

The ESXi host was failed with a purple diagnostic screen.
The backtrace was as follow:
---
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)Backtrace for current CPU #17, worldID=##########, fp=0x45795afffd80 
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905ab00:[0x42002309c66c][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0x2e4 stack: 0x45390905ad50, 0x420022305001, 0x1, 0x1, 0x1
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905ad30:[0x4200230ce355][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0x176 stack: 0x432000000030, 0x45390905adb8, 0x0, 0x0, 0x10000007f
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905ade0:[0x4200230cea85][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0xd2 stack: 0x0, 0x4200230adf97, 0x41ffc7800940, 0x432ce5627b40, 0x2           
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905ae00:[0x4200230adf96][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0xaf stack: 0x2, 0x432ce5627d30, 0x432ce5627d30, 0x0, 0x432ce5627ea4
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905ae40:[0x4200230b60b8][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0x391 stack: 0x432ce5627ce0, 0x1e0061a4e34d0c69, 0x2, 0x42002230d253, 0x420021a4b08c
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905aec0:[0x4200230d7f0e][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0xab stack: 0x432047400000, 0x432ce5608220, 0x432ce5607a40, 0x4200230d6ee4, 0x0      
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu17:##########)0x45390905aef0:[0x4200230d6ee3][email protected]#0.0.0.1+0x4c stack: 0x45390905f000, 0x4539090619a8, 0x432ce5603af0, 0x432ce5632ec0, 0x432ce5632e80
#PF Exception 14 in world ##########:vmknvmeGener IP 0x42002309c66c addr 0x100 PTEs:0x0;

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.0

Cause

• In the discovery phase of NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF), some targets might report to an ESXi host some subsystem NVMe Qualified Names (NQN).
• But that ESXi host cannot connect the NQN due to missing permissions or unavailable route. 
• The ESXi host continues attempting to connect to such NQNs and if a network issue occurs,
  In rare cases, the host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen with messages such as #PF Exception 14 in world XXXXXXX:vmknvmeGener

Resolution

This issue is resolved in the VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e (Build 24674464)

Additional Information

VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e Release Notes
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/release-notes/esxi-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-esxi-80u3e-release-notes.html