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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

Purple Screen of Death after adding new VMs

I've been running ESXi 5.5 for about a year now with four VMs.  I needed to add two more, so I added additional memory on my host server and configured the two VMs.  Both VMs are Server 2013 R2.  One is running a new database - the other a web site.  Since adding the two VMs, I've been getting the PSOD.  If I leave the two new VMs off, I don't get the crash.  I have tried removing the new memory, but the problem persists.  Is it possible for my memory or processor allocation to be causing this?  I'm using the free version of ESXi.  The PSOD screen is below.

I've been working with Dell on this.  They instructed to update all the firmware on the server, but this has not resolved the problem.  They are unable to diagnose further.

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Rubeck
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

I am using a single Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.  On VM it lists the adapter as Intel Pro 1000 MT network connection.  Why the difference?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

This is a Known problem, you need to change the E1000 to VMXnet3 or e1000e. The fix is expected to be in next month. ie 5.5 update 2

Thanks,
Avinash

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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

The two original VMs were set at the E1000 adapter.  All the other, newer, VMs were set for E1000e.  The older VMs were configured at the original installation of ESXi 5.0.  I have since upgraded to 5.5.  I also cannot choose E1000e from the dropdown list of available adapters on the older VMs.  Only the VMXnet3 is available.  I'm assuming I still need to choose the VMXnet3 adapter for those two XMs and that this won't cause any additional problems because they are using VMXnet3 and the other VMs are using E1000e..

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

yes correct, you need to choose the VMXnet3, e1000e also have known to cause this situation and you may need to disable RSS inside the guest if your using the e1000e.

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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

What is RSS.  I'm not finding it in the settings of the adapter or the documentation.  Thanks!

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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

Never mind.  I got it.  Would it be better to put all my VMs at VMXnet3 for uniformity purposes?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

            To verify this in a Windows guest operating system:

    1. Open the Device Manager, navigate to Network adapters, and right-click the adapter you wish to enable RSS on.
    2. In the Properties window, click the Advanced tab, then click RSS in the list on the left side.
    3. Change the Value to Enabled and click OK to close the window. A reboot might be necessary for the changes to take effect.

      Note: Enabling/disabling the RSS feature interrupts the network connection on the adapter for several seconds. If you are accessing the system via a remote desktop session, ensure that you can access the system in another way in case an issue occurs that causes the network connection to not return.

Thanks,

Avinash

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Yes changing the adapters to VMXnet3 would be the best.

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ATG123
Contributor
Contributor

Changing all my server network adapters to VMXnet3 has apparently fixed my problem.  No PSOD for over a week will all servers running. 

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Shrikant_Gavhan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This issue occurs due to the ring buffer for e1000 NIC card gets full. changing NIC cards to VMXNET3 will give good performance and no purple screen Smiley Happy

Thanks and Regards, Shrikant Gavhane
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Madmax01
Expert
Expert

i never would use other Nic then vmxnet. Because for the Most OS  this is the recommended Setting. (Reasons are High CPU Overhead,......)

you could check for each OS the Compatibility Matrix. example  windows 2012 R2

VMware Compatibility Guide: Guest/Host Search

i would only change away from vmxnet3  in Case using PXE (maybe theire still problems with it).

PS: have also a Look if you could change you're Power Settings to "High Performance".  the Dynamic Process also not very good and could cause Delays,.... . in an Critical Latency important Environment > theire should be Maximum Performance available.

Best regards

Max

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