ESXi with Windows Server 2008 Vm on new product that has power failures...

[KBeeman]

I am creating a new product with the host OS being ESXi and multiple VMs including two Windows Server 2008 VMs. This product has regular power failures and the Windows VM's don't start back up without console interaction. Can I setup ESXi or the Windows Vm to handle power failures?

Any suggestions?

[asatoran]

I am creating a new product with the host OS being ESXi and multiple VMs including two Windows Server 2008 VMs. This product has regular power failures and the Windows VM's don't start back up without console interaction....

If you mean that you want the virtual machines to automatically start up when the host ESX(i) is (re)started, then on the Configuration tab of the vSphere client, you can configure Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown behavior.

... Can I setup ESXi or the Windows Vm to handle power failures?

If you're saying that your product is expected to have "hard" shutdowns of the ESX(i) host often and not allow graceful shutdown of the guest virtual machines, then you may have to worry more about corruption of the guest OS. I can't imagine a typical install of Windows being able to indefinitely handle hard power offs unless you're planning to use the embedded version of Windows in a ROM type memory. (e.g.: Windows Mobile devices.)

[EricTrentMiller]

yes. log into that host via the vsphere client. go to configuration tab> virtual machine startup/shutdown and then choose properties on the right.

using the Move Up and Move Down, and adjusting the other values you can set how ESX will power on/off each VM

you need vmware tools installed on the vms for the power off features to work. the power on features will work with or without vmware tools.

[EricTrentMiller · Accepted solution]

yeah, if you want to manage the power outages on the way DOWN (off) you'll need a UPS with some kind of network shutdown feature. I'm using APC rackmount UPSs with thier network shutdown client installed on each vm. This takes care of shutting down the vms.

Since I'm using the free version of ESX, I can't install the linux version of the network shutdown util on ESX so....

on a standalone machine (mine is XP) with the network shutdown client software. install the network shutdown tool and the vCLI, then write a vCLI batch script to shut down the hosts. Make the network shutdown client software run the batch at shutdown, then shutdown the standalone machine and its all down gracefully.