Why does the system crash with HP NMI Watchdog [hpwdt]?

Issue

• System crashed with HP NMI Watchdog [hpwdt] and generated a vmcore

• Kernel log messages can be similar to following:

  Kernel panic - not syncing: An NMI occurred, please see the Integrated Management Log for details.
  
  Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.32-358.11.1.el6.x86_64 #1
  Call Trace:
   <NMI>          [<ffffffff8150d4f8>] ? panic+0xa7/0x16f
   [<ffffffff815130d6>] ? kprobe_exceptions_notify+0x16/0x430
   [<ffffffffa00234cd>] ? hpwdt_pretimeout+0x8d/0xbc [hpwdt]
   [<ffffffff81511c19>] ? perf_event_nmi_handler+0x9/0xb0
   [<ffffffff81513705>] ? notifier_call_chain+0x55/0x80
   [<ffffffff8151376a>] ? atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x1a/0x20
   [<ffffffff8109cc1e>] ? notify_die+0x2e/0x30
   [<ffffffff815114b3>] ? do_nmi+0x2a3/0x340
   [<ffffffff81510c90>] ? nmi+0x20/0x30
   [<ffffffff812d39d1>] ? intel_idle+0xb1/0x170
   <<EOE>>          [<ffffffff814163f8>] ? menu_select+0x178/0x390
   [<ffffffff814152d7>] ? cpuidle_idle_call+0xa7/0x140
   [<ffffffff81009fc6>] ? cpu_idle+0xb6/0x110
   [<ffffffff814f345a>] ? rest_init+0x7a/0x80
   [<ffffffff81c27f7b>] ? start_kernel+0x424/0x430
   [<ffffffff81c2733a>] ? x86_64_start_reservations+0x125/0x129
   [<ffffffff81c27438>] ? x86_64_start_kernel+0xfa/0x109
  

• or

  Kernel panic - not syncing: An NMI occurred. Depending on your system the reason for the NMI is logged in any one of the following resources:
  1. Integrated Management Log (IML)
  2. OA Syslog
  3. OA Forward Progress Log
  4. iLO Event Log
  Pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted: P           -- ------------    2.6.32-573.el6.x86_64 #1
  Call Trace:
   <NMI>  [<ffffffff81537a84>] ? panic+0xa7/0x16f
   [<ffffffff8153e216>] ? kprobe_exceptions_notify+0x16/0x430
   [<ffffffffa00b14df>] ? hpwdt_pretimeout+0x9f/0xcc [hpwdt]
   [<ffffffff8153cd59>] ? perf_event_nmi_handler+0x9/0xb0
   [<ffffffff8153e845>] ? notifier_call_chain+0x55/0x80
   [<ffffffff8153e8aa>] ? atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x1a/0x20
   [<ffffffff810a788e>] ? notify_die+0x2e/0x30
   [<ffffffff8153c5e3>] ? do_nmi+0x2a3/0x350
   [<ffffffff8153bdc0>] ? nmi+0x20/0x30
   [<ffffffff812f0c21>] ? intel_idle+0xd1/0x1b0
   <<EOE>>  [<ffffffff810149c9>] ? sched_clock+0x9/0x10
   [<ffffffff810a89ad>] ? sched_clock_cpu+0xcd/0x110
   [<ffffffff81434424>] ? menu_select+0x174/0x390
   [<ffffffff8143331a>] ? cpuidle_idle_call+0x7a/0xe0
   [<ffffffff81009fe6>] ? cpu_idle+0xb6/0x110
   [<ffffffff8151ee5a>] ? rest_init+0x7a/0x80
   [<ffffffff81c38122>] ? start_kernel+0x424/0x431
   [<ffffffff81c3733a>] ? x86_64_start_reservations+0x125/0x129
   [<ffffffff81c37453>] ? x86_64_start_kernel+0x115/0x124