PSOD (#PF Exception 14 in world ###:fdsAIO IP 0x############ addr 0x###) occurs in an ESXi 7.0 environment

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• An ESXi host becomes unresponsive and displays a Purple Screen of Diagnostics (PSOD)
• PSOD console displays an error message similar to the following:
  #PF Exception 14 in world ###:fdsAIO IP 0x########## addr ###
• The backtrace on the PSOD screen includes the following functions:
  Fil3ExtendHelperVMFS6
Fil3_SetFileLengthVMFS6
  Note: Additional functions may appear below these entries.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when a heap allocation fails during a file system extension operation, leading to an "Out of Memory" (OOM) condition. A fatal Page Fault (PF) exception is triggered because this OOM state is not handled correctly.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in vSphere ESXi 7.0 Update 2.
To resolve this issue, upgrade the affected ESXi hosts to ESXi 7.0 Update 2 or a later version.