PSOD - trying to collect dump info using KB2077516 : "no file configured to dump data."

[nebben]

I've been working wtih VMware, Dell, and Qlogic now on a PSOD related to LINT1/NMI that keeps us from installing ESXi 6 on any of our hosts in this config:

• Dell R710
• Brocade / Qlogic BR1020 10GB NIC

When the BR1020 NIC is in the machine, at or below the firmware and/or driver levels in the VMware HCL (3.2.5.0 rev for FW/drivers on BR1020), no matter which image I use either from Dell, VMware, or with a Brocade driver added to custom VMware ISO, I get a PSOD. The PSOD is always the same. I've followed KB2077516 for creating a dump file and configuring ESXi to use it. The dump file gets created when I've got the BR1020 card absent from the system. After reinstalling the card and reproducing the PSOD, we get the same message at PSOD time: "no place on disk to dump data" and "no file configured to dump data" even though we just configured it.

I'm trying to get more data for Dell and Qlogic, but it sort of looks like VMware is failing to load prior to bringing any datastores online. Any other ideas on how to successfully collect this dump data?

[tvcc-admin]

Having the same issue.  Did you ever get this resolved nebben‌?

[nebben]

Nope! We aren't dead set in having Vsphere 6 on our infrastructure side yet, and we're halfway there on our Horizon View cluster, but I think we're going to need to purchase different cards to make this work.

Dell gave up, VMware said it wasn't them, and Qlogic hasn't been helpful.

Even with the latest release of 3.2.6.0 drivers, we're still getting these PSOD errors with the cards. No ways to dump data beyond what we've tried as far as I've known. Are you having these issues with Brocade/Qlogic BR1020 cards as well?

[tvcc-admin]

Yes.  Almost exact same error you are getting on the purple screen with Dell R710 and Brocade 1010/1020/1007/1741 Adapter.  Tried both the Dell custom ESXi 6 ISO and the Vmware ESXi 6 ISO with the same results.  Bummer.  Thanks for the info.

[tvcc-admin]

nebben‌,

Just a heads up.  We had a QLogic NetXtremem II BCM57711 (Broadcom) 10 Gig card in another server that we put into an R710.  ESXi 6 installed without any issues.  So at least in our case I am pretty sure it was the Brocade card.

[fetzi]

Brocade Bootcode update helps.

[clunsford1]

Exact same issue, Dell R815 with QLogic card.

Did anyone ever get this to work with the QLogic card.

When I last upgraded these Host from 4.1 to 5.5, I did have to create a custom ISO with the Brocade drivers.

Tried the same, and no love from Brocade.

We having saying at work since we have almost all Brocade switches, we call it being "Brocaded".

I guess the saying applies to network cards as well.

[unsichtbare]

I believe you may need to configure a persistent scratch location to run this command successfully:

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=10336...

[clunsford1]

After posting, I read the previous post from fetzi about the bootcode.

So once I figured out how to update the bootcode using the livecd for 3.2.7.0, it worked.

I was at bootcode 3.0.0.0

What a pain.

For anyone else stuck by this.the command to update the bootcode is:

bcu boot –update brocade_adapater_boot_fw_v3-2-7-0 –a

If not sure what the image file on livecd is, you can use linux command's like "ls" to list the files

-a means to update all adapters

This was a big pain that I was struggling with for 2 days.

[RajeevVCP4]

According to PSOD there is hardware problem , run hardware diagnostic utility and check with Vendor,

For collecting core dump try these KB , its worked for me.

Configuring an ESXi/ESX host to capture a VMkernel coredump from a purple diagnostic screen (1000328...

Configuring a diagnostic coredump partition on an ESXi 5.x/6.x host (2004299) | VMware KB