System hangs or hung_task panic due to filesystem deadlock caused by 'vmtoolsd' mkdir in /tmp which is frozen

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • The system (VMware guest) hangs or crashes due to the hung task panic enabled. There are multiple tasks in uninterruptible sleep state (in D-state) including vmtoolsd process which is trying to access the frozen filesystem:
crash> bt 2042
PID: 2042   TASK: ffff88043b1b2040  CPU: 4   COMMAND: "vmtoolsd"
 #0 [ffff88043be87c08] schedule at ffffffff8150d692
 #1 [ffff88043be87cd0] __sb_start_write at ffffffff81182f4c
 #2 [ffff88043be87d60] mnt_want_write at ffffffff811a1e54
 #3 [ffff88043be87d90] sys_mkdirat at ffffffff8119206c
 #4 [ffff88043be87e70] sys_mkdir at ffffffff81192148
 #5 [ffff88043be87f80] system_call_fastpath at ffffffff8100b072

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7
  • vmtoolsd daemon running, as a part of VMware Tools

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