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  • 1.  vSphere 5 Update 1 - Auto start bug and graceful shutdown

    Posted Aug 05, 2012 11:45 AM

    Hello,

    we installed the free version of the ESXi (aka vSphere Hypervisor) Version 5 Update 1. This is the first time that we use virtualization. We are affected by the bug that is desribed in http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/03/free-esxi-hypervisor-auto-start-breaks-with-50-update-1.html . As the article states there currently does not exist any known workaround.

    1) Is there any schedule for an update that fixes the problem?

    2) Does anybody have a link to an older version of ESXi 5 that does not have this bug? At the moment we are just testing on a new hardware and we only have one experimental VM running. Hence, we can do a complete new installation and downgrade without any service outage.

    Further I noticed the following issue. If a log into the VM host via ssh and type "shutdown", the running VM guest system is powered off and not shutdown gracefully, although the VM tools are installed. If I log into the GUI via vSphere client and trigger a host shutdown, the VM guest system is shutdown gracefully.

    If I run the Python script "powerOffVms" from the SSH console, I see the following entries in "/var/log/syslog.log"

    2012-08-05T11:40:32Z python: Shutting down vm: HEKmonitor
    2012-08-05T11:40:32Z python: Shutdown failed, powering off vm: HEKmonitor
    2012-08-05T11:40:32Z python: Failed powering off vm: HEKmonitor

    3) Is this related to the same bug?

    4) Is there any other way how to shutdown the vm guest gracefully? I need a way how to automate this process from another server. My current idea was to write a little shell script that runs on this different server, logs into the vm host via ssh and calls "powerOffVms". But obviously this does not work.

    Best regards, Matthias



  • 2.  RE: vSphere 5 Update 1 - Auto start bug and graceful shutdown

    Posted Aug 05, 2012 12:36 PM

    Welcome to the Community,

    the autostart issue has been fixed with the latest patches (see http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/vsphere-hypervisor-auto-start-bug-fixed.html)

    I'm not sure whether the shutdown is also related to this fix though.

    André



  • 3.  RE: vSphere 5 Update 1 - Auto start bug and graceful shutdown

    Posted Aug 05, 2012 03:09 PM

    Hi,

    thank you. I did an upgrade and the problem is partially solved.

    1) Auto-start works

    2) powerOffVms still fails

    3) poweroff works (i.e. first the VM guests are shutdown gracefully, then they are powered off forcibly and last the host shut downs)

    One last question:

    The "shutdown.sh" script has an parameter "-d" to specify a shut down delay. What is the unit of the number (seconds or minutes)? It seems to be documented nowhere and a tried to figure it out by try-and-error. But I did not find a rule.

    Everything between 1 and 10 shut downs immediately, everything greater does not shut down at all.

    Matthias