Kdump kernel fails to collect a memory dump on a RHEL6.2 guest of ESXi 5.0.

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Issue

  • When running a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest under ESXi 5.0, the Kdump kernel fails to take a memory dump.
  • When hitting the issue, the kdump kernel starts scanning the SCSI bus for the vmw_pvscsi driver.
  • The scan does not terminate, causing the disks driven by the vmw_pvscsi driver to be taken offline. In the end, the kdump kernel fails to boot.
  • The console of the guest shows messages similar to the following:
 scsi: waiting for bus probes to complete ...
 scsi 0:0:0:0: task abort on host 0, ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: Failed to abort cmd ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: task abort on host 0, ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: Failed to abort cmd ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: SCSI device reset on scsi0:0
 scsi 0:0:0:0: task abort on host 0, ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: Failed to abort cmd ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:0:0: SCSI Bus reset
 scsi 0:0:1:0: task abort on host 0, ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:1:0: Failed to abort cmd ffff88001042ad80
 scsi 0:0:1:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
  • Because the SCSI scan never terminates, the logs will also show a hung process:
 INFO: task insmod:167 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
 insmod        D 0000000000000000     0   167      1 0x00000000
  ffff8800104b7ec8 0000000000000086 0000000000000018 0000000000000246
  ffff8800104b7e58 0000000000000246 ffff8800104b7e58 ffffffff814fbd9e
  ffff880012839af8 ffff8800104b7fd8 000000000000fb88 ffff880012839af8
 Call Trace:
  [<ffffffff814fbd9e>] ? mutex_lock+0x1e/0x50
  [<ffffffff8109227e>] ? prepare_to_wait+0x4e/0x80
  [<ffffffff8109a3bd>] async_synchronize_cookie_domain+0x7d/0x130
  [<ffffffff81091f90>] ? autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x40
  [<ffffffff8109a485>] async_synchronize_cookie+0x15/0x20
  [<ffffffff8109a4ac>] async_synchronize_full+0x1c/0x40
  [<ffffffff810b0c47>] sys_init_module+0x127/0x250
  [<ffffffff8100b0f2>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • vmw_pvscsi 1.0.1.0-k
  • Host - VMware vSphere 5.

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