Error "A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state. If this fault had occurred outside of a virtual machine, it would have caused the physical machine to restart." during Virtual machine crash.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware Telco Cloud Platform

Issue/Introduction

• The virtual machine logs file indicate that a CPU hard reset was issued by the VMware ESXi hypervisor, specifically the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) following a Triple fault. 
  
  2026-02-21T18:13:03.929Z In(05) vcpu-9 - Triple fault.
2026-02-21T18:13:03.929Z In(05) vcpu-9 - MsgHint: msg.monitorEvent.tripleFault
2026-02-21T18:13:03.929Z In(05)+ vcpu-9 - A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state. If this fault had occurred outside of a virtual machine, it would have caused the physical machine to restart. The shutdown state can be reached by incorrectly configuring the virtual machine, a bug in the guest operating system, or a problem in VMware ESX

2026-02-21T18:13:03.933Z In(05) vcpu-0 - CPU reset: hard (mode HV)
2026-02-21T18:13:03.933Z In(05) vcpu-9 - CPU reset: hard (mode Emulation)
2026-02-21T18:13:03.933Z In(05) vcpu-8 - CPU reset: hard (mode HV)
  
  
• The vmkernel.log in ESXi shows that there is an invalid opcode Invalid Opcode (0xa3) from the virtual machine.
  
  2026-02-21T18:13:07.674Z cpu0:2097652)VSCSI: 3136: handle 9083933140459521(GID:8193)(vscsi0:0):reset processed removed handle from vscsiResetHandleList 0
2026-02-21T18:13:07.742Z cpu19:2115023)VSCSIFs: 4380: handle 9083933140459521(GID:8193)(vscsi0:0):Invalid Opcode (0xa3) from (vmm0:<Virtual machine Name>)


• The virtual machine using virtual lsisas1068 (LSI Logic SAS) controller. 

Environment

TCP 3.x,

ESXi 7.x

 

Cause

• The LSI Logic SAS controller on the Virtual Machine does not support the 0xA3 opcode and the ESXi host rejected it.
• The 0xA3 probe is a standardSCSI command opcode used by the storage driver at the Guest OS level.
• The guest OS kernel apparently failed to handle this rejection gracefully, and triggered a fatal kernel panic.
• This is potentially due to the below reasons 

1. 1. The vmdk has an invalid adapter Type configured.
   2. The Guest OS name chosen at the time of the Virtual Machine creation is a legacy Linux profile and this does not support the  0xA3 probe and does not match with the current Guest OS name/version.
   3. A defect at the Guest OS level specifically with respect to handling unsupported SCSI opcode rejection gracefully.

 

Resolution

1. Engage the Guest OS Vendor for further investigation for any known defects. 
2. Verify if the Guest OS has the correct adapter type configured by referring to the KB Guest OS within a VM abruptly restarts with the event: A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state.
3. Align the virtual machine hardware and profile with the actual Guest OS capabilities or use VMware Paravirtual (PVSCSI) controller if it is supported by the Guest OS. 

1. 1. Power off the virtual machine.
   2. Right-click the virtual machine in the vSphere Client and select Edit Settings.
   3. Navigate to VM Options > General Options.
   4. Update the Guest OS Version from the generic legacy profile (e.g., other3xlinux-64) to the exact Linux distribution and version installed inside the VM.
   5. Navigate back to the Virtual Hardware tab.
   6. Expand the SCSI controller 0 section and change the type from LSI Logic SAS to VMware Paravirtual (PVSCSI).
      
      Note: Before performing this step, ensure the Linux distribution has the vmw_pvscsi driver built into its initramfs/kernel. If the driver is missing, the VM will fail to mount its root filesystem.
      
      
   7. Click OK to save the configuration.
   8. Power on the virtual machine.