Proper Shutdown of an ESXi Cluster Server Member

[andydrews]

Hi,

Is there a proper documentation or steps in shutting down a member of an ESXi cluster? I have the following infrastracture:

---VM Cluster1---

   > ESXi Server 1

   > ESXi Server 2

   > ESXi Server 3

Let's say I need to bring down ESXi Server 2 because of server maintenance, can I just shutdown all the VMs hosted on that server and then shutdown the physical server itself? Thanks to all.

[eeg3]

Assuming you are using shared storage/vmotion capable, you would place the host into maintenance mode to vacate all VMs off of it and then you can shut it down.

[andydrews]

If that's the case, am I still going to shutdown the VMs hosted on it first?

I read some articles about shutting down a member server on the VM cluster, that VMs should be migrated to other hosts then shutdown the host server is also ok. Will that be fine as well?

[eeg3]

If your environment is capable of vmotioning the virtual machines to other nodes, you would not shut them down. I presume you inherited this environment? I would suggest getting a book on vSphere such as Mastering vSphere 5 by Scott Lowe.

[andydrews]

Unfortunately, we don't have vmotion on it. We just have a plain vm cluster and the datastore is located on our SAN devices

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Following is the technical procedure we can ensure the stability of the virtual machines hosted in the ESX/ESXi server.

1. Logon to vSphere client.

2. Shutdown all the virtual machines (Operating system’s Graceful PowerDown is recommended). If the ESX/ESXi host server belongs to Cluster environment, we can migrate the virtual machines to another host. Before the Shutdown/Reboot change the ESX/ESXi server into maintenance mode.

In a cluster environment, if a host enters into maintenance mode all the hosted virtual machines will start migrating to another host within the Cluster environment. This function works with the help of VMware vMotion technology.

3. Select the ESX/ESXi host server for Shutdown/Reboot.

4. Right Click the host and click on the appropriate action (Shutdown or Reboot).

· Selecting Reboot will Shutdown and PowerOn the ESX/ESXi server.

· Selecting Shutdown will fully PowerDown the server and we need to manually Power the system back.

5. Provide a reason for the Shutdown/Reboot. The information is added to the log.

OR

You have to shutdown the vm , move the VM from one host datastore to another host datastore , add VM to inventory and power on the VM  and then shutdown the ESX/ESXi host