High host CPU usage after upgrade to ESXi 5,5

[vm7user]

after upgrade two hosts from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5

hosts have high CPU usage ~10-13% (host itself, no VM running)

[OscarDavey]

Have u seen best prectis before doing  up gradation..?

VMware KB: Installing or upgrading to ESXi 5.5 best practices

Your Oscar

[vm7user]

esxtop shows high cpu usage for "system" process (ID 2, GID 2, NAME system)

how to fix it?

[kheg]

I'm having the exact same problem.  The system process is pegging one core at 100% usage full time.  It bounces from core to core, but otherwise doesn't affect the rest of the system.  esxtop says it's running about 123% used.

This was a clean install of ESXi 5.5 hypervisor with two guests, one is FreeBSD based and one is CentOS (Linux) based.  On boot, the host seems to run find for an arbitrary amount of time between 20 minutes and a couple of hours before the runaway system proc takes off.

[kheg]

vm7user wrote:

after upgrade two hosts from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5

hosts have high CPU usage ~10-13% (host itself, no VM running)

vm7user - out of curiousity, can you share the host system spec for your machines?

[Sgt_D]

I've got two 5.5 hosts upgraded 3 days ago that now report 5888% and 7842% Host CPU utilization.

VM's are still running on them, trying to maintenance mode the hosts just stalls, and tasks won't finish.

[iwikus]

Hi, same issue after clean 5.5 install on my lab server DL180G6. Using 'ps -T' I have found process with most cpu time 'vmklinux_9:ipmi_thread'. I also noticed, that Hardware status sensors in vSphere client were not working.

I have tried to reset iLO using ipmitool from linux machine trought network using 'ipmitool -H ilo_ip -U admin -P ilopassword mc reset cold' and system process now runs ok and CPU usage is normal.

[rwstorm]

ESXi 5.5 Update 2 has just resolved this for me, and a mention in the release notes about this.

VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes

vmklinux_9:ipmi_thread of vmkapimod displays CPU usage as hundred percent for one hour

In an ESXi host, when reading the Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) inventory data using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) tool, the vmklinux_9:ipmi_thread of vmkapimod displays the CPU usage as hundred percent. This is because the IPMI tool uses the Read FRU Data command multiple times to read large inventory data.

[vm7user]

>> rwstorm

>>ESXi 5.5 Update 2 has just resolved this for me,

Update 2? ha ha ha.

after upgrade to 5.5U1 my host have high cpu usage:

[kheg]

Ensure your system's IPMI firmware and/or system BIOS has been updated to the latest available.  My system's high CPU usage issues were resolved due to outdated IPMI firmware on my system board.  Once updated, I haven't had an issue since.  Obviously, your results may vary especially if your hardware is not on the compatibility list for 5.5.

[grace27]

Hi

Please monitor storage IOPS or any antivirus scanning going on ?

are you using any monitoring sw , which will give you in what time utilization are high and rough idea .

[vm7user]

after an additional reboot the host CPU usage is back to normal.

looks like a bug in ESXi.

[kheg]

Symptomatic - after a reboot it will appear find for an arbitrary period of time, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes several hours, but unless you've fixed the underlying cause (HCL related) it will likely return.

[lvaibhavt]

Hi,

How do I check if the issue is caused by IPMI; I mean how can I confirm if IPMI is using the cpu core

Thanks