VM's CPU high load continuously after upgrade to ESXi 5.5

[amencheng]

Dear All,

After upgrade to ESXi 5.5, some VMs on that physical server get high load in CPU (95-100%) all the time, although CPU usage on that physical server is just at 20-40%.

The physical server has 2 CPUs with 4 cores per CPU. When I try to assign manually those VMs to CPU-2 (core 4,5,6,7), the CPU load on those VMs decrease to normal.

Therefore, is there any problem with the load balancing mechanism of CPU in ESXI 5.5?

[Sreejesh_D]

check for any extra/unwanted entries in vmx files of  the vms. see the following thread, the problem was resolved by cleaning up the entries created by lab manager.

Strange VM behavior High %USED, High %IDLE, absolutly zero activity on vm

[amencheng]

Dear yezdl,

I compared the vmx files of those VMs and the VM template, they are almost the same. Can you give me some key words of the extra/unwanted entries in vmx file?

Thank you very much!

[amencheng]

This is the vmx file's content of CPU-high-load VM:

.encoding = "UTF-8"

config.version = "8"

virtualHW.version = "8"

pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge4.functions = "8"

pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge5.functions = "8"

pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge6.functions = "8"

pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"

pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"

pciBridge7.functions = "8"

vmci0.present = "TRUE"

hpet0.present = "TRUE"

nvram = "HO-SRV-FLE-02.nvram"

virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

powerType.powerOff = "soft"

powerType.powerOn = "hard"

powerType.suspend = "hard"

powerType.reset = "soft"

displayName = "HO-SRV-FLE-02"

extendedConfigFile = "HO-SRV-FLE-02.vmxf"

numvcpus = "4"

cpuid.coresPerSocket = "2"

scsi0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0.sharedBus = "none"

scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"

memsize = "3072"

scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"

scsi0:0.fileName = "HO-SRV-FLE-02.vmdk"

scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"

ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.networkName = "Subnet 5"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

svga.vramSize = "8388608"

guestOS = "windows7-64"

uuid.location = "56 4d 2f cc e1 58 a1 7f-5e 50 93 e4 b9 9b 91 be"

uuid.bios = "56 4d 29 cb 3e 0d db 37-da 42 74 ab 0b d6 fd f6"

vc.uuid = "52 bb 2c a1 bd b7 98 30-45 1a 8e 16 cb e3 cd 92"

tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:d6:fd:f6"

vmci0.id = "198639094"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

annotation = "for file checking"

cleanShutdown = "FALSE"

replay.supported = "FALSE"

unity.wasCapable = "TRUE"

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/4e987720-8c12d07e-c8d6-782bcb4f76fe/HO-SRV-ANZ-02/HO-SRV-ANZ-02-be4d538a.vswp"

replay.filename = ""

scsi0:0.redo = ""

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"

pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"

pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"

pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "160"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "33"

scsi0.sasWWID = "50 05 05 6b 3e 0d db 30"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

hostCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

hostCPUID.1 = "000206c220200800029ee3ffbfebfbff"

hostCPUID.80000001 = "0000000000000000000000012c100800"

guestCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

guestCPUID.1 = "000206c200020800829822031fabfbff"

guestCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

userCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

userCPUID.1 = "000206c220200800029822031fabfbff"

userCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

evcCompatibilityMode = "FALSE"

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "8388608"

ide1:0.clientDevice = "TRUE"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

softPowerOff = "FALSE"

toolsInstallManager.lastInstallError = "0"

toolsInstallManager.updateCounter = "2"

tools.remindInstall = "FALSE"

sched.cpu.affinity = "4,5,6,7"

sched.mem.affinity = "all"

[Jayden56]

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

Please follow the link given below it may solve your problem.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200100...

[Rubeck]

As a test have you tried creating a new VM and attach existing disks, so a new .vmx file can be created from scratch.. ? (Note: A new MAC address and UUID will be generated)

Entries like unity.wasCapable = "TRUE" in the .vmx doesn't seem right.. 

/Rubeck