VMware Cloud Community
MatthewCEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Error "It is now safe to turn off your computer" on Windows 2003 Server only from "Shut Down Guest"

We have two new ESX 3.5.0 143128 deployments with two freshly built Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard (32-bit) deployments. The servers have the 3.5.0 143128 build of the VMware tools installed.

If I do a Start - Shutdown from inside of Windows, the VM properly shuts down and powers off the machine, so it appears that the ACPI features are working as expected.

If I do the VM option "Shut Down Guest" the computer will shut down everything but then wait at the following prompt: "It is now safe to turn off your computer". The VM has to be manually powered off at this point.

Anyone have any idea why I'm seeing the correct behavior from native Windows, but not from "Shut Down Guest"?

Matthew Evans

Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.

360 Lexington Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Direct: 212.692.5608

email: evans@kraftkennedy.com

Matthew Evans Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. 360 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017 Direct: 212.692.5608 email: evans@kraftkennedy.com
Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

Although an old KB, it may work for you

...also, ensure you have the VMware Tools installed, which may resolve your issue before trying the KB

Reply
0 Kudos
MatthewCEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks.

I just tried this and it still won't shut down from "Shut Down Guest" but still works fine from native Windows with Start - Shutdown.

Matthew Evans

Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.

360 Lexington Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Direct: 212.692.5608

email: evans@kraftkennedy.com

Matthew Evans Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. 360 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017 Direct: 212.692.5608 email: evans@kraftkennedy.com
Reply
0 Kudos
Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

Moved to Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

Verify that VMware Tools is installed. Also look at the VMware Tools settings within the guest (icon in lower left of VM console). You may not allow shutdown scripts to fully run.


Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
Reply
0 Kudos
MatthewCEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, the VMware tools are installed and running.

On the Scripts tab, the Script Event: Shut Down Guest Operating System has Use Script enabled and the Default Script is selected.

If I open up the C:\program files\VMware\vmware tools\poweroff-vm-default.bat file it appears to be empty with just REMed out statements. Is that normal?

Here's the contents of the file:

@REM ########################################################################

@REM # DO NOT modify this file directly as it will be overwritten the next

@REM # time the VMware Tools are installed.

@REM ########################################################################

Matthew Evans

Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.

360 Lexington Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Direct: 212.692.5608

email: evans@kraftkennedy.com

Matthew Evans Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. 360 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017 Direct: 212.692.5608 email: evans@kraftkennedy.com
Reply
0 Kudos
MatthewCEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately it looks like this is causing an issue with Site Replication Manager (SRM) and changing the IP addresses using a "Customization Specification". The server will hang on the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" after the Customization Specification has run and hangs up the Recovery Plan until the VM is manually powered off.

Any other suggestions about things to look at or check with this? Is it a problem with the newest version of the VMware tools? I'm running version 3.5.0 Build 143128, so I'd be interested to hear that someone else can properly shut down the Guest OS with this version of the VMware tools.

Matthew Evans

Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.

360 Lexington Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Direct: 212.692.5608

email: evans@kraftkennedy.com

Matthew Evans Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. 360 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017 Direct: 212.692.5608 email: evans@kraftkennedy.com
Reply
0 Kudos
MatthewCEvans
Contributor
Contributor

This solution didn't have anything to do with VMware, but Windows Group Policy. There was an existing Group Policy that applied to servers that had the following value set:

Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Do not turn off system power after a Windows system shutdown has occurred

This allows the computer to shutdown and power off when clicking Start - Shutdown, but won't automatically power down with the either the VM scripts or the Windows Shutdown.exe command.

Matthew Evans

Kraft & Kennedy, Inc.

360 Lexington Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Direct: 212.692.5608

email: evans@kraftkennedy.com

Matthew Evans Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. 360 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017 Direct: 212.692.5608 email: evans@kraftkennedy.com
Reply
0 Kudos