Auto start VMs in HA environment - vCenter Server Appliance at least?

[munkyman]

Is there anyway to auto start the vCenter Server Appliance VM when in a High Availability environment?

I understand that in the real operating environment, this would rarely be needed, but while testing and installing new servers it would be handy to have the vCenter server auto start.  Right now, if both servers are powered off the only way to start the vCenter server appliance VM is to use the windows client to connect to the appliance's host, boot it and then use the web client to boot the other VMs.

I have 2 hosts, 3 VMs (1 being the vCenter Appliance VM), in HA configuration.  Through the web client, in the host, under the "manage" tab then "VM Startup/Shutdown" there is the following message "If the host is part of a vSphere HA cluster, the automatic startup and shutdown of virtual machines is disabled."

How about the other VMs too?  Is there anyway to have them auto start too?

The only scenario when this would be important to have is after an extended power loss when the UPS dies.

Thanks for your help.

Alex

[weinstein5]

This link will help https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-4-esx-vcenter/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.vmadmin.doc_41/vsp...

[munkyman]

Thank you for the reply.  However, that is where the message is that states that the auto start is disabled when in a HA environment.

[odohertyd]

Try vApps. Might be what you need. You can set vm startup priority in those.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc%2FGUID-0FAB05D4...