VMware guest kernel crash with error: kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c

Issue

• A RHEL 6 or RHEL 7 guest running in VMware crashes with a backtrace pointing to vmxnet3_xmit_frame():

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  kernel BUG at drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c:763!
  invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP 
  last sysfs file: /sys/devices/system/cpu/online
  CPU 3 
  Modules linked in: nfs lockd fscache auth_rpcgss nfs_acl sunrpc ipv6 uinput ppdev parport_pc parport microcode sg vmware_balloon i2c_piix4 shpchp ext4     jbd2 mbcache sd_mod crc_t10dif sr_mod cdrom vmxnet3 vmw_pvscsi 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: scsi_wait_scan]
  
  Pid: 20918, comm: oracle Not tainted 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6.x86_64 #1 VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform
  RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa01784c6>]  [<ffffffffa01784c6>] vmxnet3_xmit_frame+0xa06/0xfa0 [vmxnet3]
  RSP: 0018:ffff880e16e6f7f8  EFLAGS: 00010046
  RAX: 0000000fa6052000 RBX: ffff881020ce49e0 RCX: 0000000000000000
  RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000fa6052000 RDI: ffff881028cc9090
  RBP: ffff880e16e6f8b8 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000
  R10: 00000000000000a4 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88102410d7f0
  R13: ffff881023f123e8 R14: 00000000000000a4 R15: 00000000000000a4
  FS:  00007fb3f1daf700(0000) GS:ffff8800282c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007fa856979200 CR3: 0000000f03b95000 CR4: 00000000001407e0
  DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  Process oracle (pid: 20918, threadinfo ffff880e16e6c000, task ffff881027119520)
  Stack:
   ffff881020ce4a00 0000880e16e6f888 ffff880e16e6f838 0000000000000003
  <d> 0000000000000000 00000000000000a4 0000000000000206 0000002200000020
  <d> ffff881020ce4a00 0000000000000008 0000000000016ec0 0000000000000003
  Call Trace:
   [<ffffffff8147ea1c>] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x21c/0x490
   [<ffffffff8149c3ca>] sch_direct_xmit+0x15a/0x1c0
   [<ffffffff8147ef38>] dev_queue_xmit+0x228/0x320
   [<ffffffff814bb334>] ip_finish_output+0x184/0x360
   [<ffffffff814bb5c8>] ip_output+0xb8/0xc0
   [<ffffffff814ba845>] ip_local_out+0x25/0x30
   [<ffffffff814bad50>] ip_queue_xmit+0x190/0x420
   [<ffffffff814d0602>] tcp_transmit_skb+0x4d2/0x910
   [<ffffffff814d2c1c>] tcp_write_xmit+0x1dc/0xa90
   [<ffffffff814d3800>] __tcp_push_pending_frames+0x30/0xe0
   [<ffffffff814c25ce>] tcp_push+0x6e/0x90
   [<ffffffff814c35cc>] tcp_sendmsg+0x64c/0xa20
   [<ffffffff81466c4b>] sock_aio_write+0x19b/0x1c0
   [<ffffffff8119996a>] do_sync_write+0xfa/0x140
   [<ffffffff8106b2a3>] ? perf_event_task_sched_out+0x33/0x70
   [<ffffffff810a68a0>] ? autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x40
   [<ffffffff81014b19>] ? read_tsc+0x9/0x10
   [<ffffffff810b29cf>] ? ktime_get_ts+0xbf/0x100
   [<ffffffff8123aa66>] ? security_file_permission+0x16/0x20
   [<ffffffff81199d34>] vfs_write+0x184/0x1a0
   [<ffffffff8119b156>] ? fget_light_pos+0x16/0x50
   [<ffffffff8119a7a1>] sys_write+0x51/0xb0
   [<ffffffff811b21f1>] ? sys_poll+0x71/0x100
   [<ffffffff8100b0d2>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
  Code: 48 8b 75 a0 80 66 0d f3 66 83 66 0a 03 4c 8b 4d 98 48 8b 55 b8 4b 8d 44 09 01 48 c1 e0 07 48 8b 44 10 10 83 00 01 e9 15 ff ff ff <0f> 0b eb fe 44 0f b6 73 3c c7 43 34 00 00 00 00 41 83 f6 01 44 
  RIP  [<ffffffffa01784c6>] vmxnet3_xmit_frame+0xa06/0xfa0 [vmxnet3]
   RSP <ffff880e16e6f7f8>