Repeated vmxnet3 tx hang and resetting

Issue

• Repeated tx hang messages after upgrading to ESXi 6.5.

• BUG_ON, softlockup hangs, hung tasks, and WARNING: at net/sched/sch_generic.c:261 dev_watchdog+0x26b/0x280() (Not tainted) with VMware VMs

• Repeated vmxnet3 TX hang, with the following printed in logs:

  NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (vmxnet3): transmit queue 1 timed out
  vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: tx hang
  vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: resetting
  vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0 eth0: tx hang
  

• Kernel panic during driver resetting NIC at:

  kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c:756!
  RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa0091869>]  [<ffffffffa0091869>] vmxnet3_xmit_frame+0x9e9/0xe90 [vmxnet3]
  Call Trace:
   <IRQ> 
   [<ffffffff81461934>] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x224/0x480
   [<ffffffff8147e5da>] sch_direct_xmit+0x15a/0x1c0
   [<ffffffff8147e6ab>] __qdisc_run+0x6b/0xe0
   [<ffffffff81459910>] net_tx_action+0x130/0x1c0
   [<ffffffff8107d8b1>] __do_softirq+0xc1/0x1e0
   [<ffffffff810b034a>] ? tick_program_event+0x2a/0x30
   [<ffffffff8100c30c>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30
   [<ffffffff8100fb55>] do_softirq+0x65/0xa0
   [<ffffffff8107d765>] irq_exit+0x85/0x90
   [<ffffffff81533bca>] smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x4a/0x60
   [<ffffffff8100bb93>] apic_timer_interrupt+0x13/0x20
   <EOI> 
  RIP  [<ffffffffa0091869>] vmxnet3_xmit_frame+0x9e9/0xe90 [vmxnet3]
  

• Intermittent network connection and loss of network connectivity on VMware VM