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Service Console might lose network connectivity on a server with more than 128GB of memory installed (1005375)

Details

The service console might lose network connectivity on a server configured with more than 128GB of memory. Remote applications such as VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, VirtualCenter Server, or ESX Server might become nonresponsive. A known issue with an ESX Server 3.5.x network component causes memory-related issues if the installed memory exceeds 128GB. If this occurs, VMkernel logs might display error messages similar to the following:

Jan 15 08:28:32 localhost vmkernel: <6>bnx2: vmnic0 NIC Copper Link is Up, 1000 Mbps full duplex
Jan 15 08:43:41 localhost vmkernel: 0:17:08:46.201 cpu8:1134)WARNING: LinNet: 4255: Watchdog timeout for device vmnic0

Solution

This issue is resolved in ESX 3.5 Update 3 and higher. You can download ESX 3.5 Update 3 from the VMware Infrastructure 3 Download Center.
 
Note: This issue is resolved on all built-in drivers that are pre-packaged with ESX 3.5 Update 3 and higher. However, any third party drivers supplied by a vendor may still encounter this problem. Contact your hardware vendor for an updated version of the driver if you encounter this issue.
 
To workaround the issue, limit or reduce the maximum memory configuration to 128GB or less if your server exhibits this problem running VMware ESX Server 3.5.x. 

Update History

05/11/2010 - Indicated that this issue may still occur with 3rd party drivers.

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