Knowledge Base

Summaries and Symptoms

This patch upgrades kernel-source and kernel-vmnix to support the bnx2x and NetXen software driver updates, which fix the following issues:

• When virtual machines are run with older versions of VMware Tools (ESX 3.0.x) on ESX 3.5 and ESXi 3.5 hosts containing bnx2x NICs, the virtual machines might experience a network outage. Messages similar to the following might be logged to /var/log/vmkernel:

[bnx2x_stats_update:4098(vmnic6)]stats not updated for 3 times
[bnx2x_stats_update:4099(vmnic6)]driver assert
[bnx2x_panic_dump:597(vmnic6)]begin crash dump -----------------
[bnx2x_panic_dump:606(vmnic6)]queue[0]: tx_pkt_prod(0) tx_pkt_cons(0) tx_bd_prod(0) >tx_bd_cons(0) *tx_cons_sb(0)
[bnx2x_panic_dump:612(vmnic6)] rx_bd_prod(1fc) rx_bd_cons(0) *rx_bd_cons_sb>(0) rx_comp_prod(202) rx_comp_cons(2) *rx_cons_sb(2)
[bnx2x_panic_dump:620(vmnic6)] rx_sge_prod(0) last_max_sge(0) fp_c_idx(0) >*sb_c_idx(0) fp_u_idx(2) *sb_u_idx(2) bd data(0,0)
[bnx2x_panic_dump:647(vmnic6)]rx_bd[1f8]=[0:41cccdf0] sw_bd=[0x92ccc90]
[bnx2x_panic_dump:668(vmnic6)]cqe[1f8]=[0:0:0:0]
[bnx2x_panic_dump:676(vmnic6)]def_c_idx(35279) def_u_idx(0) def_x_idx(0) def_t_idx(0) > def_att_idx(0) attn_state(0) spq_prod_idx(210)
bnx2x: begin fw dump (mark 0x800f53c)

To work around this issue, upgrade the version of VMware Tools in the virtual machines.

• A NetXen driver issue where the ESX 3.5 host or a virtual machine might lose network connectivity or become unstable when using a NetXen NX2031 device.

Deployment Considerations

None beyond the required patch bundles and reboot information listed in the table, above.

Patch Download and Installation

See the VMware Update Manager Administration Guide for instructions on using Update Manager to download and install patches to automatically update ESX Server 3.5 hosts.

Note: All virtual machines on the host must be either shut down or migrated using VMotion before applying the patch. A reboot of the ESX Server host is required after applying this patch.

To update ESX Server 3.5 hosts when not using Update Manager, download the most recent patch bundle from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches_35.html and install the bundle using esxupdate from the command line of the host. For more information, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide.