Best way to gracefully power down my VMware environment?

[rpommier]

We are having a power outage and I would like to know the best way to power all of my VM's and hosts off. Here's what I am thinking of doing:

- Disable DRS for Vcenter (it's a VM)

- Begin power down the VM's

- Enter Maint mode on ESX Hosts then Power them off

- All powered off VM's will be on one ESX host because of DRS

- Last of all power down Vcenter

- Then use the VIC to get into the last ESX Host and power it down with

To power on I would do the following:

- Power on the ESX Host with Vcenter, then power on Vcenter and begin powering on Hosts and VM's

- Of course I would wait for the DC and SAN to come online.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rod

[AntonVZhbankov]

There is much better way:

1) Select cluster, open VM tab

2) Select multiple VMs and perform shut down guest on all VMs except DNS, DC and vCenter

3) Only after that perform Enter Maintenance on all ESXes except one. When you put host to maintenance mode vCenter automatically migrates powered off VMs.

But VM migration is optional. All you need - to know where DNS, DC and vCenter are to power them on first.

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MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[rpommier]

Should I power down VCenter and the DC before I put the ESX Host in Maint mode or just leave them running and power down the ESX Host with them on it?

Thanks,

Rod

[AntonVZhbankov · Accepted solution]

When only vCenter and DC are still powered on - connect to ESX directly, power VMs down.

Wait till Windows shuts down and then you can just power down ESX without maintenance. Just because maintenance means something when you are connected to vCenter, not ESX directly.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru