If I have all VM's on a host set to auto startup/shutdown (suspend), am I correct that if I right-click on the host and tell it to Shut Down all VM's should suspend first, then the host shut down?
For some reason this is not working for me. All VM's begin to suspend, but the host shuts down before they complete and I get dirty shut downs.
Hi Craig,
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Client inventory, select the host where the virtual machine is located and click the Configuration tab.
2 Under Software, click Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown and click Properties.
3 Select Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system.
4 (Optional) Configure the startup and shutdown behavior.
Option
Action
Default Startup Delay
Select the amount of time to delay starting the operating system.
This delay allows time for VMware Tools or the booting system to run scripts.
Continue immediately if the VMware Tools starts
Select to start the operating system immediately after VMware Tools starts.
Default Shutdown Delay
Select the amount of time to delay shutdown for each virtual machine.
The shutdown delay applies only if the virtual machine does not shut down before the delay period elapses. If the virtual machine shuts down before the delay time is reached, the next virtual machine starts shutting down.
Shutdown Action
Select a shutdown option from the drop-down menu.
■
Power Off
■
Suspend
■
Guest Shutdown
Move Up and Move Down
Select a virtual machine in the Manual Startup category and use the Move Up button to move it up to Automatic Startup or Any Oder.
When virtual machines are in the Automatic Startup category, you can use Move Up and Move Down to order them so that they start in a preferred sequence. During shutdown, the virtual machines are stopped in the opposite order.
Edit
Click Edit to configure user-specified autostartup and shutdown behavior for virtual machines in the Automatic Startup or Any Order category.
5 Click OK to close the dialog box and save your settings.
Thanks for the reply. However, I already have the auto startup/shutdown setup. However when I shut down the host, the host shits down before the VM completes shut down.
Ok, how many seconds did you set for default shutdown delay ? And also is HA enabled ? or it is just a standalone ESXi host ?
set to 10 seconds or so, then the VMs has to suspend before the host goes down.
Hi Craig,
I would suggest you to find the time required to suspend each VM manually. And mentioned the highest Time as the "Default shutdown delay". This way we can ensure that the Host shutdown will be delayed until all the VMs are suspended.
For example
VM1 - 120Secs
VM2 - 220 Secs
VM3 - 80Secs
then "Default shutdown delay" is 220Sec. Ensure that the Shutdown Action selected is Suspend.
I will try adding more time. But it was my understanding this was just a delay in starting each shutdown. Not delaying the host from shutting down.
No HA involved. I use vCenter with two hosts, but no HA.
Okay, I changed it FROM 10 seconds TO 300 seconds and sure enough, all VM's suspended before the host shutdown.
So was I wrong in how I understood this setting? If I have three VM's at 300 seconds each, does that mean the host will wait 900 seconds before it shuts down? I THOUGHT it would start the suspend on the first one, then wait that amount of time before starting the next one so you could make sure the resources were not overwhelmed suspending all the machines at once.
The shutdown delay applies only if the virtual machine does not shut down before the delay period elapses. If the virtual machine shuts down before the delay time is reached, the next virtual machine starts shutting down.
Yes, that part I understand.
What I do not understand is if the time only applies to the time between VM shutdowns, then why was the HOST not waiting for them all to shutdown before turning itself off?