Error message is displayed when a large number of dvPorts are in use in VMware ESXi 5.1.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When you power on a virtual machine with a dvPort on a host that already has a large number of dvPorts in use, an Out of memory or Out of resources error is displayed. This can also occur when you list the switches on a host using an esxcli command.

Note: This is a heap exhaustion issue which can also be caused by a memory leak in ESXi 5.1 when virtual machines are configured with E1000/E1000E NICs. See Hosts with virtual machines using the E1000/E1000E adapter have networking issues after upgrading to ESXi 5.1 U2 (2072694).

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

To work around this issue, you must increase the dvsLargeHeap size.

1. Change the host's advanced configuration option:
   
   
   • Run this esxcli command:
     
     esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/DVSLargeHeapMaxSize -i 100
     
     You can verify the value is changed with this command:
     
     esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/DVSLargeHeapMaxSize
     
     
   • On the vCenter Server, browse to Host configuration > Software Panel > Advanced Settings and under Net, change the DVSLargeHeapMaxSize value from 80 to 100.
     
     
   • On the vSphere 5.1 Web Client browse to Manage host > Settings > Advanced System Settings > Filter, and change the DVSLargeHeapMaxSize value from 80 to 100.
     
     
2. Save a host profile from the host.
3. Associate the profile with the host and update the answer file.
4. Reboot the host to confirm that the value is applied.

Note: The maximum value for DVSLargeHeapMaxSize is 128.

Contact VMware Support if you face problems for a large deployment after changing DVSLargeHeapMaxSize to 128 and if logs display either of the the following error messages:

• Unable to Add Port; Status(bad0006)= Limit exceeded
• Failed to get DVS state from vmkernel Status (bad0014)= Out of memory
  

Note: Advanced configuration parameters management is covered in Configuring advanced options for ESXi/ESX (1038578). Instructions for using the Web Client, the vSphere client, PowerCLI, and the esxcli family of commands are given.