Kernel panic running as a VMware Guest ("BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000004")
Issue
- A RHEL 7.3 Virtual Machine hosted on VMware, configured with 6 or more vCPUs, performs a kernel panic
- Backtrace may be an
Oopsorgeneral protection faultornull pointer dereferencesimilar to:
[ 41.651323] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000004
[ 41.654952] IP: [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[ 41.657710] PGD 226fb0067 PUD 224207067 PMD 0
[ 41.660488] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP
...
[ 41.723411] CPU: 3 PID: 3444 Comm: processname Not tainted 3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64 #1
[ 41.728173] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/14/2014
[ 41.734588] task: ffff8800b8878fb0 ti: ffff88021f314000 task.ti: ffff88021f314000
[ 41.740372] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff8158934d>] [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[ 41.745795] RSP: 0018:ffff88021f317c10 EFLAGS: 00010246
[ 41.749489] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 000000000000000a
[ 41.753207] RDX: 0000000000000004 RSI: ffff88023fcdcfc0 RDI: ffffffff81a9de68
[ 41.757286] RBP: ffff88021f317c68 R08: ffff880231f51240 R09: 0000000000000006
[ 41.761327] R10: ffff88021f317c1e R11: 00000000769dff76 R12: 0000000000000001
[ 41.765176] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffffff81a9de68
[ 41.768839] FS: 00007f342e8ff700(0000) GS:ffff88023fcc0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 41.773028] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 41.776074] CR2: 0000000000000004 CR3: 0000000222e34000 CR4: 00000000000407e0
[ 41.779812] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[ 41.783931] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[ 41.787291] Stack:
[ 41.790289] ffff88023fcdcfc0 0000880224228b28 0000039e00000000 ffff88021f317c28
[ 41.794601] ffff88021f317c28 0000000054aa644a 0000000000000009 0000000000000001
[ 41.798477] 0000000000000002 0000000000000002 ffffffff81a9cd80 ffff88021f317cd8
[ 41.803183] Call Trace:
[ 41.806017] [<ffffffff815896ec>] flow_cache_lookup+0x2dc/0x420
[ 41.810285] [<ffffffff8160e860>] ? xfrm_expand_policies+0x130/0x130
[ 41.814286] [<ffffffff8160f22f>] xfrm_lookup+0x29f/0x3f0
[ 41.817796] [<ffffffff815adccd>] ? __ip_route_output_key_hash+0x1fd/0x930
[ 41.822848] [<ffffffff8160f72b>] xfrm_lookup_route+0x1b/0x70
[ 41.827166] [<ffffffff815ae764>] ip_route_output_flow+0x54/0x60
[ 41.831703] [<ffffffff815d441c>] tcp_v4_connect+0x1ac/0x4e0
[ 41.835636] [<ffffffff8118055b>] ? unlock_page+0x2b/0x30
[ 41.839032] [<ffffffff815eb3f5>] __inet_stream_connect+0xb5/0x330
[ 41.842785] [<ffffffff811de15c>] ? kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x3c/0x200
[ 41.846627] [<ffffffff8111f9f6>] ? __audit_sockaddr+0x66/0x80
[ 41.850816] [<ffffffff815eb6a8>] inet_stream_connect+0x38/0x50
[ 41.855154] [<ffffffff81554fe7>] SYSC_connect+0xe7/0x120
[ 41.859742] [<ffffffff81555dee>] SyS_connect+0xe/0x10
[ 41.863985] [<ffffffff816964c9>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
[ 41.869171] Code: f0 4d 8b 30 41 39 dd 4c 89 f0 7e 14 41 8b 97 80 00 00 00 41 39 50 1c 4c 89 f0 0f 84 96 00 00 00 49 8b 50 08 41 83 c4 01 48 85 c0 <48> 89 02 74 04 48 89 50 08 48 b8 00 01 00 00 00 00 ad de 48 8d
[ 41.884953] RIP [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[ 41.889424] RSP <ffff88021f317c10>
[ 41.892794] CR2: 0000000000000004
Environment
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3
- kernel version lower than
3.10.0-514.21.1.el7 - VMware ESXi 5.x and 6.x
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