There is an issue with vmmon and linux kernel 3.5 and higher. The issue was resolved for VMware 9 but not for older version. I am attaching a fix for version 7.x, someone should do the same for version 8.x.
Created attachment 342648 [details, diff] Patch to fix VMware 7 for generating a SMP general protection fault This is basically the same patch as 271-vmmon.patch but for VMware 7.x (modules 238)
Sorry but we're dropping vmware 7. Too much.