Auto VM startup

[tractng]

Can I turn the individual VMs to auto start up (power on, delay, etc) if a host has been rebooted?  I remember I was able to do this on 5.5 when HA was turned on.

We are on 6.5 now.

Thanks,

TT

[daphnissov]

Yes, although autostart is disabled if the host is joined to an HA cluster. The two abilities are different. Autostart and HA failover priority are with separate ESXi licenses and abilities. Which specifically are you asking?

[tractng]

Here is the simple question.

If my ESXi host loses power and rebooted, I want the VMs to be able to autostart.  How do I do this?  It looks like once HA is enabled, it won't allow me to.

For example, last year our Data center lost power and we had to power on all the ESXI hosts (physical machines) and all VMs auto start.  Does the VMs auto start for 6.5?  If so, how do I set the delay?

[BerndtSchumann]

Select the host in question, go into the Configure tab in the right part of the screen and scroll down to the Virtual Machines part. You will see the list of the machines. In the top right part of the screen you will see the Edit button that will allow you enabling autostart for separate VMs.

[tractng]

BerndtSchumann,

I don't have the option to edit.

It says: "If the host is part of a vSphere HA cluster, the automatic startup and shutdown of virtual machines is disabled."

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

As I said, when HA is enabled there is no autostart. The whole point of HA is to ensure VMs are automatically restarted on other hosts if one fails.

[diegodco31]

Hi

The Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown (automatic startup) setting is disabled for all virtual machines residing on hosts that are in a vSphere HA cluster. Automatic startup is not supported with vSphere HA.

Check if the following VMware KB article helps: Edit Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown Settings

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

[tractng]

That is what I read too.  I want to have my Windows Active Directory start first .

We had a situation a few years back back where the Data Center lost power along with UPS.