Intermittent unresponsive state on HPE Gen11 Servers due to BIOS version

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• HPE Gen11 ESXi hosts intermittently hang or stop responding.
• NMI doesn't work. It failed to crash the ESXi.
• A power-cycle of the server is required to regain control.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

There is a known issue in HPE Gen11 Servers running a System ROM (BIOS version) prior to version 2.80.

Advisory: (Revision) HPE Gen11 Servers - SYSTEM ROM UPDATE RECOMMENDED: Intel-Based Systems May Randomly and Infrequently Stop Responding During Runtime and Require a Power-Cycle to Recover

Resolution

Consult your hardware vendor and update the System ROM.