Virtual Machine startup/shutdown

[LondonD]

Hi

I am setting up some VMs on this specific host to start up with the system. For example my DC

What will happen if this machine VMotions to another host, as this is a host specific setting?

Thanks

[Troy_Clavell]

these settings will "follow" the guest.  Just rememember if you have you guests in an HA cluster, the startup/shutdown optiions, even though you can configure them, are disabled.

[PduPreez]

That is correct

When your host is part of an HA cluster these settings are disabled although not grayed out.

For Startup priority you need to configure it on the Cluster settings under HA - Virtual Machine Options.

regards

[LondonD]

Thanks for the Quick response guys.

OK so i should not be fidling with the host settings.

How will I ensure my DC starts up first after downtime.

Denzel

[PduPreez · Accepted solution]

Hi Denzel

This depends on the type of downtime:

Scheduled downtime you can ensure the DC starts first, because you have to manually start up the VMs.

That is if you gracefully shut them down.

Unplanned downtime you can only prioritize the VMs that need to start 1st. For example High priority DC, low priority App server.

This however does not guarantee the DC will be up and running before the App server starts, because there are no delayed starts

Here is quite a good post on this whole discussion that should answer all your questions:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/262476

But in short HA only starts VMs that was in a running state before the downtime.

regards

Pieter

[Troy_Clavell]

Well, as mentioned if your hosts are part of an HA cluster, you can set restart priorities. For you DC set it to high.  If your hosts are not part of an HA cluster configure the startup/shutdown options of your DC to automatic.

[PduPreez]

Just to add

This is one of the reasons that is still best Practice to have a physical DC.

I'm not a fan of physical servers , but if the infrastructure is not redundant/resilient enough to prevent whole outages, you would want one.

[LondonD]

I have read the linked discussion and that sure clears it up

It would be nice if the can build in startup delays in HA though.

Thanks Again

Denzel