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Pegasus (cimserver) memory leaks reported in ESX 3.5 Update 2 and later

Details

  • An ESX host displays a purple diagnostic screen with similar error to the following:

    0:08:04:55.679 cpu0:1024)VMNIX: ALERT: HB: 365: Lost heartbeat (comm=cimserver
    pid=3588 t=30 to=30 clt=1).
    0:08:04:55.818 cpu0:1024)Host: 4781: COS Error: Lost heartbeat
    Starting coredump to disk Starting coredump to disk Dumping using slot 1 of 1...
    using slot 1 of 1... Log

  • The ESX host may be slow to respond on Console-based network management connections.
  • The ESX host may disconnect from VirtualCenter or vCenter.

Solution

Summary

Starting with ESX 3.5 Update 2 and later, memory leaks are reported in Pegasus (cimserver). Over time, memory leaks lead to the cimserver process occupying the available memory and swap space. Some memory leaks might appear on specific hardware models or might depend on how frequently the CIM server is queried. This issue causes the service console to fail, causing ESX to fail with a Lost Heartbeat error message.  For more information about the lost heartbeat error message, see An ESX host experiences a purple diagnostic screen with the error: lost heartbeat (1009525).

Note: This issue affects ESX 3.5 Update 2, Update 3, and Update 4 releases. All other versions of ESX (including ESXi) are not affected. This issue does not affect ESX 4.0 and ESXi 4.0 as Pegasus component is not used.  

Workaround  

The current workaround is to periodically restart the Pegasus service process so that any excessive memory which is being used is freed. The following steps describe how to schedule a daily service restart at midnight: 
  1. Log into the ESX host as root at the console or via SSH.  For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).
  2. At the root shell prompt, run the following command to edit the root crontab:

    crontab –e

    Note:  This opens a vi editor.  For more information about the vi editor, see Vim documentation. For more information about cron, see Automating Tasks with Cron and Crontab files.

  3. Add the following line:  

    0 0 * * * /etc/init.d/pegasus restart 

  4. Save and quit the crontab editor by typing :wq.   
VMware recommends that you monitor cimserver's memory usage and adjust the cronjob to run accordingly. You can monitor the size of the cimserver process with ps -lf -C cimserver command or with the top command. You may adjust the cronjob frequency to restart Pegasus more or less frequently, depending on how fast it leaks on your system.
 
Note: In VMware Infrastructure Client, the Health Status in the Configuration tab might not display any information during the restart of the CIM server.

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1009607
  • Updated: Nov 13, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.5.x