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CONTAP-520139: System becomes unresponsive due to low FreeBSD memory availability - high dma_buffer allocations

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Category:
ontap-9
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core
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Issue

  • ONTAP BSD memory gets exhausted and as a result critical system processes may become unresponsive, leading to an unexpected node reboot with errors similar to:
    Process vldb unresponsive for 210 seconds in process nodewatchdog on release 9.16.1
    Process mgwd unresponsive for 188 seconds (mgwd startup: "(3402)") in process nodewatchdog on release 9.16.1P5 (C)

  • Customers may notice slow administrative operations, delays in command execution, and frequent system alerts.

  • Before an unexpected reboot, rdma.rlib errors might be observed in the EMS log on the affected node and on all other nodes with which it has NVRAM mirroring relationships.
    12/12/2025 09:35:52 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.connected: misc:DR:A QP is now connected.
    12/12/2025 09:35:51 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.event.error: QP raid event error: client disconnect.
    12/12/2025 09:34:12 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.connected: raid:DR:A QP is now connected.
    12/12/2025 09:32:32 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.connected: misc:DR:A QP is now connected.
    12/12/2025 09:32:31 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.event.error: QP raid event error: client disconnect.
    12/12/2025 09:29:12 ClusterA-01 DEBUG rdma.rlib.connected: raid:DR:A QP is now connected.


  • When VifMgr RDB services does loose quorum due to the memory shortage, it might drop all LIF and data becomes unavailable:
    0000001c.000b957e 0319b6c4 Sat May 09 2026 18:21:18 +00:00 [kern_vifmgr:info:8459] [0x80c525800] [EventMgr::unitOffline] Setting VifMgr operational status as OOQ
    0000001c.000b957f 0319b6c4 Sat May 09 2026 18:21:18 +00:00 [kern_vifmgr:info:8459] [0x80c525800] [FailoverMgr::localNodeDown] VifMgr on node MyCluster-01 is now out of quorum.

    Sat May 09 18:21:18 +0000 [MyCluster-01: vifmgr: vifmgr.lifBeingRemoved:notice]: XXXXX (on virtual server 3), IP address XXXXX, is being removed from node MyCluster-01, port a0a-1610.

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