IBM Support

Disabled device reappears in guest after new device hot plug following EEH errors

Flashes (Alerts)


Abstract

When a PCI device that is assigned to a KVM guest encounters repeated Enhanced Error Handling (EEH) errors, the PCI device is permanently disabled by the guest kernel. However, hotplugging a new device can inadvertently re-enable the previously disabled device, causing EEH error reports to reappear in the guest logs.

Content

Linux Release Affected

SLES-16 PPC64LE Kernels 6.12.0-160000.16-default or later

IBM Systems Affected

Any IBM Power System LPAR that supports and runs a KVM Guest in an LPAR

Symptoms

Defective devices that are assigned to a KVM guest might trigger EEH reports in the guest dmesg. Repeated EEH errors within a short interval can cause the guest kernel to disable the device permanently. If a new device is hotplugged later, then the disabled device might be reprobed, leading to recurring EEH reports in the guest logs.

Workaround

You can manually unplug the affected device to prevent it from being re-enabled during subsequent hot plug operations.

Fix Outlook

The fix for this issue will be included in a later release.

I/O device impacted

None

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Document Information

Modified date:
10 November 2025

UID

ibm17247949