/sbin/shutdown.sh not longer works after updating to ESXi 6.5

[snktech]

I have long since relied on the /sbin/shutdown.sh && /sbin/poweroff combo to gracefully shut down ESXi hosts and it's never had an issue. After upgrading from 6.0 to 6.5 however my scripts ceased to work.

I SSH'd into the server and ran shutdown.sh manually, only to get the following:

Errors:

Invalid operation requested: This ruleset is required and connot be disabled

Saving current state in /bootbank

Clock updated.

Time: 06:27:02   Date: 12/27/2017   UTC

I stepped through the shutdown script and found that the issue appears when the following is run:

/sbin/services.sh stop

Any ideas what could be causing this?

[daphnissov]

Although it throws that message, it still should shutdown the host. It does for me in ESXi 6.5 at least.

[msripada]

Hello,

I am on 6.5 ESXi GA and tried the same and it worked.  From the error message, this is 6.5 issue with services.sh restart and is mentioned in this services.sh restart problem - This ruleset is required and connot be disabled

It worked for me as below output but I am using 6.5 GA. What is the ESXi 6.5 build number you have?

[root@hostname:~] /sbin/shutdown.sh

Saving current state in /bootbank

Clock updated.

Time: 16:31:12   Date: 12/27/2017   UTC

Thanks,

MS

[snktech]

I'm running 6.5.0 Update 1 (Build 7388607)

Out of interest what are the contents of your shutdown.sh?  Mine is as follows:

#!/bin/ash

log() {

   echo "$1"

   logger init "$1"

}

#Extract and save the random seed

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/etc/random-seed count=1 2>/dev/null

#Power off autostart configured VMs

/sbin/vmware-autostart.sh stop

#Stop running services

/sbin/services.sh stop

#Backup the config (including the random seed)

/sbin/backup.sh 1

#Shutdown syslog daemon

/usr/lib/vmware/vmsyslog/bin/shutdown.sh

[snktech]

Unfortunately while it does run and shuts down my VM's etc, it doesn't actually shut down the server.

[MiroVM]

Take a look at this:

https://fabianbrash.com/?p=66

[menzie]

Hi all,

It is kind of strange that this question is still not answered. Anyway, here is how it worked for me on ESXi 6.5

To shutdown:

sbin/host_shutdown.sh

To startup:(the host would be in maintenance mode when it wakes up)

vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 1

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 2

In the above example, I have powered on my first two VMs after the server exited the maintenance mode.

Hope this helps someone.

Regards.