RHEL VMware VM crashes with: kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c:1412!

Issue

• A RHEL guest under ESX crashes with the following backtrace shown:

  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c:1412!
  invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP 
  last sysfs file: /sys/devices/system/cpu/online
  CPU 0 
  Modules linked in: fuse autofs4 nfs lockd fscache auth_rpcgss nfs_acl sunrpc des_generic ecb md4 nls_utf8 cifs 8021q garp stp llc vsock(U) ipv6     microcode vmware_balloon sg vmci(U) i2c_piix4 shpchp ext4 jbd2 mbcache sd_mod crc_t10dif sr_mod cdrom vmxnet3 mptsas mptscsih mptbase scsi_transport_sas pata_acpi ata_generic ata_piix vmwgfx ttm drm_kms_helper drm i2c_core dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod [last unloaded: speedstep_lib]
  
  Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32-696.el6.x86_64 #1 VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform
  RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa01bdd42>]  [<ffffffffa01bdd42>] vmxnet3_rq_rx_complete+0xd62/0xdf0 [vmxnet3]
  RSP: 0018:ffff880032e03d70  EFLAGS: 00010297
  RAX: 0000000000000004 RBX: ffff8803328d4ee0 RCX: 0000000000000000
  RDX: 0000000000000040 RSI: 0000000000000040 RDI: 0000000000000000
  RBP: ffff880032e03e10 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
  R10: ffff8803328d4ff0 R11: 8af1230a00ef067c R12: ffff88033824a2f0
  R13: ffff880338360198 R14: ffff8803361c74c0 R15: ffff880335820110
  FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff880032e00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0018 ES: 0018 CR0: 000000008005003b
  CR2: 00000000024cdb70 CR3: 0000000335a32000 CR4: 00000000000007f0
  DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  Process swapper (pid: 0, threadinfo ffffffff81a00000, task ffffffff81a95020)
  Stack:
   ffff880335502001 ffff880032e16f28 ffff8803328d4f00 0000000000000000
  <d> 0026000000000000 0002880000000040 0000000000000092 0000000032e03db8
  <d> 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 ffff8803328d46e0 0000001132e16ec0
  Call Trace:
   <IRQ> 
   [<ffffffffa01bdf43>] vmxnet3_poll_rx_only+0x43/0xb0 [vmxnet3]
   [<ffffffff810f8c47>] ? cpu_quiet_msk+0x77/0x130
   [<ffffffff81480d43>] net_rx_action+0x103/0x300
   [<ffffffff81085245>] __do_softirq+0xe5/0x230
   [<ffffffffa01bac61>] ? vmxnet3_msix_rx+0x31/0x60 [vmxnet3]
   [<ffffffff8100c38c>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30
   [<ffffffff8100fc95>] do_softirq+0x65/0xa0
   [<ffffffff810850d5>] irq_exit+0x85/0x90
   [<ffffffff81554935>] do_IRQ+0x75/0xf0
   [<ffffffff8100ba53>] ret_from_intr+0x0/0x11
   <EOI> 
   [<ffffffff81046016>] ? native_safe_halt+0x6/0x10
   [<ffffffff810169bd>] default_idle+0x4d/0xb0
   [<ffffffff81009fe6>] cpu_idle+0xb6/0x110
   [<ffffffff81530e5a>] rest_init+0x7a/0x80
   [<ffffffff81c3c127>] start_kernel+0x429/0x436
   [<ffffffff81c3b33a>] x86_64_start_reservations+0x125/0x129
   [<ffffffff81c3b453>] x86_64_start_kernel+0x115/0x124
  Code: ff 0f 0b eb fe 0f 0b 66 90 eb fc 0f 0b eb fe 0f 0b 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 eb f6 0f 0b eb fe 0f 0b 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 eb f6 <0f> 0b eb fe     8b 83 88 01 00 00 48 8b 75 a0 48 c1 e7 05 48 8b 4d 
  RIP  [<ffffffffa01bdd42>] vmxnet3_rq_rx_complete+0xd62/0xdf0 [vmxnet3]
   RSP <ffff880032e03d70>
  

• On RHEL8

[  164.292241] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[  164.292244] kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c:1441!
[  164.292278] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI
[  164.292303] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64 #1
[  164.292335] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/05/2016
[  164.292377] RIP: 0010:vmxnet3_rq_rx_complete+0x916/0xe50 [vmxnet3]