ESXi host experiences a PSOD when a Wake-on-LAN enabled virtual machine enters sleep mode

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Wake-on-LAN is active on a virtual machine and bus mastering is not active.
• ESXi becomes PSOD when the VM enters into sleep mode.
• ESXi PSOD log may shows below:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)@BlueScreen: ASSERT bora/vmkernel/net/ens/sse/vmxnet3_ensdev_tx.c:309
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)Code start: xxxxxx VMK uptime: DD:HH:MM:SS
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027427847]PanicvPanicInt@vmkernel#nover+0x2f3 stack: 0x4539ce89a9d8
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027428079]Panic_NoSave@vmkernel#nover+0x52 stack: 0x4539ce89aa30
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x42002742828a]Panic_OnAssertAt@vmkernel#nover+0xbf stack: 0x13500000000
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027c610d1]Int6_AssertFailOrUD@vmkernel#nover+0x136 stack: 0x0
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027c580dd]gate_entry@vmkernel#nover+0xbe stack: 0x8001003b
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027849ec3]Vmxnet3EnsDevSetupUnmapData@vmkernel#nover+0x577 stack: 0x43133a827c00
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x420027854ac9]Vmxnet3EnsDev_TxV2@vmkernel#nover+0x5c2 stack: 0x4539ce89ae8b
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS cpu0:xxxxxx)xxxxxx:[0x42002a13603b]rte_port_vnic_reader_rx@(nsxt-ens-24214545)#<None>+0x6c stack: 

• VM vmware.log may shows below:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Vmxnet3 PCI: PciHdrConf: Bus mastering is changed.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Disabled Wake Up Packet Filtering
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Enabled Wake Up Packet Filtering
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Vmxnet3 PCI: Vmxnet3PCIPMEConf: Bus mastering is disabled, enable backend. pmcsr 103
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Enabled Wake Up Packet Filtering (async)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - VMXNET3 user: failed to activate 'Ethernet1', status: 0xbad0020
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(05) vcpu-0 - Vmxnet3 PCI: Vmxnet3PCIPMEConf: Failed to enable backend for WoL while bus mastering is off

Environment

VMware ESXi 8

Cause

When bus mastering is disabled and device is put in low power state, we currently enable the back end for Wake-on-LAN. However, this needs to be done if device is still activated. If device is quiescent, enabling back-end can cause issues.

Resolution

Upgrade ESXi to version 8.0u3i or later.

 

Additional Information

Please see document below

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/release-notes/esxi-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-esxi-80u3i-release-notes.html