System panics with errors "CIFS VFS: server not responding" in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Issue

• System panicked while trying to flush a file on CIFS filesystem with:

        Unable to handle kernel paging request at 0000000000005c07 RIP: 
         [<ffffffff887ba461>] :cifs:find_writable_file+0xad/0xd2
        PGD 196c34067 PUD 18da58067 PMD 1c3aa0067 PTE 0
        Oops: 0000 [1] SMP 
        last sysfs file: /devices/pci0000:40/0000:40:0f.0/0000:43:00.1/irq
        CPU 2 
        Modules linked in: cpqci(U) mptctl ipmi_devintf ipmi_si ipmi_msghandler nfsd
        exportfs nfs lockd fscache nfs_acl nls_utf8 cifs sunrpc bonding dmpaa(U)
        vxspec(U) vxio(U) vxdmp(U) fdd(U) vxportal(U) vxfs(U) dm_mirror dm_multipath
        dm_mod video sbs backlight i2c_ec i2c_core button battery asus_acpi
        acpi_memhotplug ac parport_pc lp parport sg ide_cd k8_edac lpfc edac_mc cdrom
        serio_raw scsi_transport_fc k8temp shpchp e1000 hwmon bnx2 pcspkr usb_storage
        ata_piix sata_nv libata mptsas scsi_transport_sas mptspi mptscsih
        scsi_transport_spi mptbase cciss sd_mod scsi_mod ext3 jbd ehci_hcd ohci_hcd
        uhci_hcd
        Pid: 413, comm: pdflush Tainted: PF     2.6.18-53.1.14.el5 #1
        RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff887ba461>]  [<ffffffff887ba461>]
        :cifs:find_writable_file+0xad/0xd2
        RSP: 0018:ffff81042fa05bc0  EFLAGS: 00010202
        RAX: 00000000ffffff90 RBX: 0000000000005bf7 RCX: ffff8103dc881540
        RDX: ffff8103dc881540 RSI: 000000000d83dc38 RDI: ffffffff887e82c0
        RBP: ffff8103d4f642f8 R08: ffff81042fa04000 R09: 000000000000003f
        R10: ffff810107bcc008 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff81042fa05e10
        R13: ffff8103d4f64448 R14: 00000000fffffff5 R15: 0000000000000009
        FS:  0000000040110940(0000) GS:ffff810107b193c0(0000) knlGS:00000000ac7fbb90
        CS:  0010 DS: 0018 ES: 0018 CR0: 000000008005003b
        CR2: 0000000000005c07 CR3: 00000001caf3e000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
        Process pdflush (pid: 413, threadinfo ffff81042fa04000, task ffff81022fa71100)
        Stack:  0000000000001000 0000000000000524 0000000000000600 ffffffff887bc9d2
         ffff81020fc19800 0000860000000009 ffff810220e65140 000000008001c85a
         ffffffffffffffff 000000002f888c00 0000000000000524 000000000051b000
        Call Trace:
         [<ffffffff887bc9d2>] :cifs:cifs_writepages+0x3d2/0x5ff
         [<ffffffff80059052>] do_writepages+0x20/0x2f
         [<ffffffff8002f8c0>] __writeback_single_inode+0x1a8/0x322
         [<ffffffff88572733>] :vxdmp:vxdmp_congested+0x148/0x158
         [<ffffffff88602756>] :vxio:vol_rwsleep_unrdlock+0x15/0x4e
         [<ffffffff80020b0a>] sync_sb_inodes+0x1a9/0x267
         [<ffffffff8009c2c4>] keventd_create_kthread+0x0/0x61
         [<ffffffff8004ed14>] writeback_inodes+0x82/0xd8
         [<ffffffff800c23e4>] wb_kupdate+0x9e/0x10d
         [<ffffffff800544f7>] pdflush+0x0/0x1fb
         [<ffffffff80054648>] pdflush+0x151/0x1fb
         [<ffffffff800c2346>] wb_kupdate+0x0/0x10d
         [<ffffffff800321fc>] kthread+0xfe/0x132
         [<ffffffff8005cfb1>] child_rip+0xa/0x11
         [<ffffffff8009c2c4>] keventd_create_kthread+0x0/0x61
         [<ffffffff800320fe>] kthread+0x0/0x132
         [<ffffffff8005cfa7>] child_rip+0x0/0x11


        Code: 48 8b 43 10 0f 18 08 48 8d 53 10 48 8d 45 10 48 39 c2 75 80 
        RIP  [<ffffffff887ba461>] :cifs:find_writable_file+0xad/0xd2
         RSP <ffff81042fa05bc0>

• Logs shows the following messages:

         CIFS VFS: server not responding
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 15528
         CIFS VFS: No response to cmd 47 mid 15526
         CIFS VFS: No response to cmd 47 mid 15527
         CIFS VFS: Write2 ret -11, written = 0
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 15529
         CIFS VFS: Write2 ret -11, written = 0
         CIFS VFS: server not responding
         CIFS VFS: server not responding
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 15537
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 15536
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 15538
         CIFS VFS: No response to cmd 47 mid 15535
         CIFS VFS: Write2 ret -11, written = 0
         CIFS VFS: No writable handles for inode
         CIFS VFS: No response to cmd 47 mid 15534
         CIFS VFS: Write2 ret -11, written = 0
         CIFS VFS: server not responding
         CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 114 mid 15539
         CIFS VFS: No writable handles for inode
        Unable to handle kernel paging request at 0000000000005c07 RIP: 
         [<ffffffff887ba461>] :cifs:find_writable_file+0xad/0xd2