Vmware virtualized guest is crashed by the NMI watchdog when accessing /proc/slabinfo file

Issue

• VMWare-virtualized system is is crashed by the NMI watchdog with the following kernel log and a call trace:

NMI Watchdog detected LOCKUP on CPU X
CPU X
Modules linked in: hfsplus nfs fscache nfs_acl vmmemctl(U) lockd sunrpc dm_multipath scsi_dh video hwmon
backlight sbs i2c_ec button battery asus_acpi acpi_memhotplug ac lp floppy sg e1000 shpchp parport_pc
i2c_piix4 ide_cd i2c_core parport cdrom serio_raw pcspkr dm_raid45 dm_message dm_region_hash dm_mem_cache
dm_snapshot dm_zero dm_mirror dm_log dm_mod ata_piix libata mptspi mptscsih mptbase scsi_transport_spi sd_mod
scsi_mod ext3 jbd uhci_hcd ohci_hcd ehci_hcd
Pid: 7263, comm: cp Tainted: G      2.6.18-164.2.1.el5 #1
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff800a70f3>]  [<ffffffff800a70f3>] s_show+0xb1/0x291
RSP: 0018:ffff8100ce237e58  EFLAGS: 00000002
RAX: 0000000000000003 RBX: ffff8100db7bef40 RCX: ffff8100b2e25040
RDX: ffff8100b2e25040 RSI: 0000000000000003 RDI: ffff8100db7bef80
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000006 R09: 0000000000000020
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff8100d9aa4440
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff8100e96982c0
FS:  00002ab2ea874f90(0000) GS:ffff8100efeaa840(0000) knlGS:00000000f7fbc6c0
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007fff5e57a948 CR3: 000000007cb02000 CR4: 00000000000006e0
Process cp (pid: 7263, threadinfo ffff8100ce236000, task ffff8100baffb080)
Stack:  ffff8100baffb080 000000000001401f 0000000000006ab5 0000000000000000
 0000000000000000 ffff8100e96982c0 ffff8100d9aa4440 0000000000000278
 0000000000001000 0000000000000000 00007fff5e57b000 ffffffff8003f66b
Call Trace:
 [<ffffffff8003f66b>] seq_read+0x1b8/0x28c
 [<ffffffff8000b695>] vfs_read+0xcb/0x171
 [<ffffffff80011b72>] sys_read+0x45/0x6e
 [<ffffffff8005d116>] system_call+0x7e/0x83
Code: 48 8b 0a 0f 18 09 48 8d 43 10 48 39 c2 75 c7 48 8b 03 eb 40 

• VMWare-virtualized system may crash with the following messages on the console:

Kernel panic - not syncing: nmi watchdog
Pid: 2934, comm: scopeux Tainted: G   ---- 2.6.18-274.el5 #1
RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff800aa555>]  [<ffffffffff800aa555>] s_show+0xb1/0x291
RSP: 0018:ffff8100e6645e58  EFLAGS: 00000012
...skip...
Call Trace:
 [<ffff8100e57d1eb0>] seq_read+0x1b8/0x28c
 [<ffff8100e57d1f10>] vfs_read+0xcb/0x171
 [<ffff8100e57d1f40>] sys_read+0x45/0x6e
 [<ffff8100e57d1f80>] tracesys+0xd5/0xe0