proper shutdown procedure, maintenance mode needed ?

[HankVonHelvete]

Hi,

we are adding ram to our production blades. We will be shutting down the VMs that are currently running.

I cant remember if I need to place the ESX host in maintenance mode before I initiate the power off?

can anyone confirm?

[JPM300 · Accepted solution]

It would be a good idea to put it into maintence mode first then power off the blade prior to upgrading the memory

Otherwise vCenter will see an unexecpted shutdown per say and a VM could land back on the blade during power down if you have DRS going.

[schepp]

Hi,

is your host part of a HA cluster?

If yes bringing it to maintenance mode first is a good idea, because otherwise HA might get nervous.

If it's a standlone host or not part of a HA cluster, maintenance mode is not mandatory before the shutdown.

Tim

[HankVonHelvete]

thanks for the quick feedback, much appreciated