Automatic power up problems with VMOTION

[KNardi]

We have rencenty converted to ESX 3.0.1 server

Along with our VIC which is 2.0.1

We have set all of our servers to "Automatic Startup" through the Configuration/Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown tab

But when we VMOTION any of those machines they get put into the "Manual Startup" area.

How can I prevent this from happening.

There are times when we have to empty a server for updates or whatever reasons and this a serious problem

Please help!

[admin]

Nope I don't think you can do anything about this as the auto-startup/shutdown is tied to an individual host, so when you vmotion to a new host the setting is lost.

To have vmotion you must have shared storage, which leads me to ask, are you using HA? If you are then I would argue that the auto-startup feature is pretty redundant and I wouldn't bother configuring it.

[esiebert7625]

Also be careful with Automatic Startups, there is a nasty bug that will power down all your VM's if you restart mgmt-vmware on the server. I turned mine off after being bit by this twice.

3.0.1 restart bug - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=597633��

3.0.1 restart bug - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=75462&tstart=0

[KNardi]

Yes we are using HA... but in the event that we want to move vm's off one server to the next. We would like their configuration to follow.

Even when HA has been used all the "Automatic Startup" do not carry over

It seems with the new ESX versions and New VIC's the functional aspects of VMWARE has gone by the wayside.

So is this something we just have to deal with or is there a fix for this?

[admin]

There is no fix, and I wasn't saying that HA would 'fix' the issue you're having. What I was sayign was - with HA you do not need auto-startup and I wouldn't bother configuring it, not least for the mgmt-vmware restart issue.

Look at the scenarios:

1/ Planned downtime. You vmotion all VMs to another host before shutting down your ESX host, so auto-startup is not required.

2/ Unplanned downtime. All VMs are automatically restarted by HA on another host in the cluster. At this point auto-start on the host that was down is meaningless, as even when it comes back up, the VMs are already running elsewhere.

Why do you want to use auto-startup in an HA cluster?

[KNardi]

Ok scenerio

I VMOTION my Vm's to another server in the cluster...

The server that those VM's reside is scheduled for a reboot on the weekend..

That server reboots and the VMotioned servers stay down because they are not set to "Autostart"

So back to my question. Can the VM's keep the settings they had on the other server??

[bigvee]

Short answer is no... startup/shutdown is specified on the host not the guest.

You can probably script a startup, but I think thats about it.

Heres a link to someone that made a script to scan and modify auto-starts, its for 2.5 though and would need some fixing.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=438503

[admin]

Didn't I answer that already? No. You cannot keep your auto-start settings after a vmotion.

As for your scenario.

One, why would you vmotion your VMs to a box that you knew was scheduled to reboot?

Two, even if your VMs are set to auto-start that's still a hard pull-the-plug reboot of your VMs, not exactly ideal!

Three, rebooting the server (presumably from the service console?) would trigger HA as it would be seen as an unplanned outage, so the VMs would be restarted on the other host in your cluster automatically. In which case auto-start on the rebooted host does not make any sense at all.

I still can't see what advantage you're getting by using auto-start in an HA enabled cluster.

[esiebert7625]

Looks to me like you did

[KNardi]

We have a multiple of ESX servers. 19 to the date so far, whith each ESX server hosting approx 12-25 vm's

Since we have multiple divisions, not all the ESX servers are on the same LUN or LUNS

Our ESX servers are set to reboot, through a script that does a gracefull shutdown of all VM servers on the HOST.

Because of the amount of physical servers we have, any the limited amount of Admins we have to have these things automated.

[bigvee]

Script like I posted is the only option then as far as I know.......

[Petje]

Maybe a strange question... why do you reboot your esx servers ????

[DFATAnt]

Why don't you set the guests to automatic startup on all the ESX servers (you would need to vmotion them to each ESX server so that you could configure this). That way you would be sure that no matter what ESX server they are on, if it gets rebooted the guest will automatically startup. It might be a bit of work, but it could solve your problem.

Ant

[jmcdonald1]

Unfortunately at this time there is no fix for this behavior that I am aware of. This said, there are problem reports open to address this issue in a future release of the product.

[Rumple]

heh..I was wondering the exact same thing. I can't remember the last time I rebooted the ESX host.

Remember..esx is not windows and doesn't need a monthly reboot.

[KNardi]

Never mind... I'll call VM and HP

thanks

[mattpound]

I did create a little script to do it on ESX 3.x

You can find the thread here..

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=598686#598686

[cgiadm_magottea]

Here is my concern.

I have a Cluster (5 hosts with Vmotion-HA-DRS) with 30 W2K3 VM

I have 2 VM Domain Controllers and I want that this 2 servers restart automatically and before all the others after a maintenance reboot of my ESX Cluster

Virtual Center Server is a Physical server member of the W2K3 domain and I prefer to have my 2 DC up when I connect Virtual Center

That's why Automatic power up lost with VMotion is an issue for me.

I know that I can log on localy my Virtual Center Server but it is not clean to boot a W2K3 without any W2K3 DC