Why did my Intel Xeon based RHEL server crash without any entry in /var/log/messages?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • My Intel Xeon based RHEL server crashed without leaving any entry in /var/log/messages.

  • My Intel Xeon based server crashes frequently during periods of low activity.

  • Analysis of kernel dump generated after the crash shows a trace similar to the following one:

PID: 0      TASK: ffff882009188040  CPU: 12  COMMAND: "swapper"
 #0 [ffff8800282c3aa0] machine_kexec at ffffffff81035c9b
 #1 [ffff8800282c3b00] crash_kexec at ffffffff810c0d22
 #2 [ffff8800282c3bd0] oops_end at ffffffff81511700
 #3 [ffff8800282c3c00] die at ffffffff8100f19b
 #4 [ffff8800282c3c30] do_general_protection at ffffffff81511202
 #5 [ffff8800282c3c60] general_protection at ffffffff815109d5
    [exception RIP: uhci_scan_schedule+144]
    RIP: ffffffff813da090  RSP: ffff8800282c3d10  RFLAGS: 00010012
    RAX: ffff880037811000  RBX: ffff88200684b998  RCX: 00000000000078cf
    RDX: 000000004b87644d  RSI: ffff88200684b998  RDI: ffff88200684b998
    RBP: ffff8800282c3d90   R8: ffff88200684b998   R9: 0000000000000001
    R10: 0000000000000000  R11: 00000000000000a3  R12: 83811108203a556c
    R13: ffff88200684ba20  R14: ffff8800282c3df0  R15: 0000000000000286
    ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffffff  CS: 0010  SS: 0018
 #6 [ffff8800282c3d98] uhci_hub_status_data at ffffffff813db748
 #7 [ffff8800282c3de8] usb_hcd_poll_rh_status at ffffffff813b503f
 #8 [ffff8800282c3e38] rh_timer_func at ffffffff813b594e
 #9 [ffff8800282c3e48] run_timer_softirq at ffffffff81081837
#10 [ffff8800282c3ed8] __do_softirq at ffffffff81076fb1
#11 [ffff8800282c3f48] call_softirq at ffffffff8100c1cc
#12 [ffff8800282c3f60] do_softirq at ffffffff8100de05
#13 [ffff8800282c3f80] irq_exit at ffffffff81076d95
#14 [ffff8800282c3f90] smp_apic_timer_interrupt at ffffffff815172b0
#15 [ffff8800282c3fb0] apic_timer_interrupt at ffffffff8100bb93
--- <IRQ stack> ---
#16 [ffff881009ac7db8] apic_timer_interrupt at ffffffff8100bb93
    [exception RIP: intel_idle+222]
    RIP: ffffffff812d39fe  RSP: ffff881009ac7e68  RFLAGS: 00000206
    RAX: 0000000000000000  RBX: ffff881009ac7ed8  RCX: 0000000000000000
    RDX: 0000000000000224  RSI: 0000000000000000  RDI: 0000000000085e4c
    RBP: ffffffff8100bb8e   R8: 0000000000000004   R9: 00000000000000c8
    R10: 0013c83469d39da5  R11: 0000000000000000  R12: 0000000000000086
    R13: ffff881009ac7dd8  R14: ffff8800282d15a0  R15: 0000000000000000
    ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffff10  CS: 0010  SS: 0018
#17 [ffff881009ac7ee0] cpuidle_idle_call at ffffffff814152d7
#18 [ffff881009ac7f00] cpu_idle at ffffffff81009fc6

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Intel Xeon 34xx, 35xx, 36xx, 55xx, 56xx or 75xx hardware

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