Hi,
This is a Windows 10 64 bit workstation latest patch level. Some vmware workstation guests appear to crash repoducible the underlying RAID1 (LSI Megaraid SA 9441-8i, latest firmware and windows driver). This behaviour started about three weeks ago. All other volumes on the same controller appear not to be affected. This is not load related, happens randomly and soon after guest bootup.
Symptoms:
VMware Workstation guest freezes, VMware freezes and cannot be killed. Windows Explorer freezes and cannot be killed. System cannot be shutdown. Logical volume where the vmware guest files and folder reside is completely inaccessible until foreced OS reboot (hardware resert). This usually results in guest disk file corruption.
What I've investigated:
RAID1-volume, controller and drives are fine, tested and verified under heavy load, enterprise class SAS WesternDigital drives. Windows logs inconclusive. I suspect something going on between vmware strorage driver and LSI megaraid driver or an os bug!? Difficult to tell right now, whether vmware triggers a volume failure or a megaraid driver failure triggers a vmware crash. Only vmware workstation triggers this behavior though, no other problems with this volume whatsoever.
What Ive tried so far:
Disabled protection and shared folders to no avail. Runnig the default guest LSI driver on all guests.
I am trying to narrow this down and will also open a ticket with Broadcom/LIS. Any advise greatly appreciated.
Regards, Gernot
