VMware Cloud Community
xuanpv
Contributor
Contributor

Why VMs do not auto power on when shutdown Esxi 5.5 by Console (F2) in HA clustering.

Dear all .

- I have problem when testing in Vcenter HA . Details

1. When shutdown Esxi by Vcenter . The Vms machine auto move to another host and can auto turn on .

2. But when shutdown Esxi by login to console press F2 Login F12 to shutdown host . the Vms machine can move to another host but can not auto turn on power .

How to configuration Vms machine auto turn on when shutdown by console (F2-F12). ?

Thanks and best regards !

Reply
0 Kudos
4 Replies
depping
Leadership
Leadership

It is not really an HA scenario you are testing right? I mean, in an HA situation the host would just be dead and not manually powered off through the commandline interface.

Reply
0 Kudos
xuanpv
Contributor
Contributor

Dear all .

This is system with HA function .

+ When host dead (Ex : disconnect all cable or turn off suddenly) the Vms(running) move to another host and auto power on , shutdown by Vcenter also .

+ But when shutdown by console ( direct to ESXi Host use f2 and f12 to shutdown ) the Vms(running) move to another host but not auto power on . My customer requires mush have power on in all scenario . I don’t know how to do it .

+ Have you got any solution ?

Thanks

Xuanp

Reply
0 Kudos
depping
Leadership
Leadership

I do not have a solution for you to be honest. Your customer should never ever shutdown a host with VMs still running on it. They should cleanly shutdown all VMs first if they can. I will try to find out why this doesn't work, but I am guessing that F12 powers-off the VMs instead of letting them crash. When a VM is powered-off it looks to HA as if this was initiated by an Admin and as such it will not power it on.

Reply
0 Kudos
Radyair
Contributor
Contributor

I don't have an answer, I am looking into standalone ESXi 5.5 not powering on VMs after a power failure...suspect the NAS is not available yet and have set 5 minute delay.

Anyway, a suggestion for testing vMotion and HA,

or to force a move of running VMs before you issue a shutdown command on a specific host:

- you could unplug the ethernet cables, making it look like the host failed.

- vCentre should detect that and mount the VMs on another host and start them.

- then you could gracefully shut down the host.

Not what I'd call best practice, but better than yanking power cables from host servers.

good luck

Reply
0 Kudos