Error: Coherent packet issued to an IO link

[mphodge]

Does anyone have any idea what caused this server to crash?

(see attached screenshot of server console)

I have no idea if it's a hardware fault with memory, NIC, CPU, or an ESXi bug?

[DSTAVERT]

Those are generally hardware issues. I would use whatever server disgnostic tools you may have available (most server manufacturers have some tools available) and run disgnostics.

Download and run Memtest to verify RAM.

Make sure you firmware / BIOS is up to date.