rabbitmq 3.6.2 – random kernel panics

I am running a rabbitmq cluster with 2 disc nodes.  I am experiencing completely random (so it seems) kernel panics on my main rabbitmq server.  At first I thought it was due to a hardware issue, so moved rabbit to a new host and the problem has followed it there.   There is absolutely no  errors in the rabbitmq logs prior to the kernel panics.  Sometimes the panics happen within a day of each other, and sometimes I will go for 2 weeks without a panic. The host has plenty of RAM and CPU.  I’ve also tried removing the rabbit cluster and only running on a single rabbit instance—the same problem happens.    When the panic happens, a crash report is written to /var/crash and this is the only useful information at the bottom of the log:

[75192.307727] type=1130 audit(1526975284.680:24070): pid=1 uid=[removed] auid=[removed]ses=[removed]msg=’unit=auditd comm=”systemd” exe=”/usr/lib/systemd/systemd” hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success’
[75192.307740] type=1131 audit(1526975284.680:24071): pid=1 uid=[removed] auid=[removed]ses=[removed]msg=’unit=auditd comm=”systemd” exe=”/usr/lib/systemd/systemd” hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success’
[75193.303920] type=1305 audit(1526975285.676:24072): audit_enabled= old= auid=[removed]ses=[removed] res=1
[75193.303929] type=1305 audit(1526975285.676:24073): audit_pid=[removed] old=0 auid=[removed]ses=[removed]res=1
[111810.720168] Kernel panic – not syncing: Watchdog detected hard LOCKUP on cpu 1

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Upgrading to a newer version of rabbit is not really an option for me unless there is a specific bug report somewhere that says this issue has been fixed.  I should also add that nothing else is running on this server–it’s a dedicated rabbit server.