How to Power on ESXi host from vCenter?

[AlexeyGoncharov]

Hi All,

There are option to Power On a host on a vSphere web client but by some reason it is grayed out and not available.

On the screenshot host is running but it is the same then its powered off.

Details:

vSphere v6.0 Update 1

Host: Dell PowerEdge R710.

iDRAC is configured.

IPMI Settings for Power Management is configured. (But not sure how to test from within vCenter actually)

Host is running on Evaluation license so all features is available.

Any clues?

Cheers,

Alex.

[peetz · Accepted solution]

Hi Alex,

are these hosts part of a cluster, and have you enabled Power Management in the cluster's DRS settings?

Update: Looks like this is only available when the host is part of a cluster, but the cluster does not necessarily need to have DRS and Power Management enabled.

- Andreas

[AlexeyGoncharov]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for sharing the wisdom! 😉

Yep, it works in a cluster. With just small additional detail - in my case I can power on host only if it was "Entered Standby Mode" before. Host is actually looks like it is shut down - you can unplug the power and do any maintenance.  Have no idea whats a difference between Standby and Shut down in this case.

Have a good day!

Alex.

[peetz]

Hi Alex,

to explain the difference between Standby and Shutdown:

if you put a host in Standby mode then vCenter will try to power it on again automatically if the resources are required and Power Management is running in "automatic" mode.

If you shut it down then vCenter will never try to power it on again by itself. You then need to manually power it on again.

In both cases the host will technically be shut down and powered off. And if you do not have Power Management configured with automatic mode then there is really no difference in behavior.

Andreas