How to properly shutdown vCenter appliance 6.0U2?

[vipclubber]

I have vCenter Appliance Server 6.0U2a running on ESXi 6.0U2 host which hosts about 15 VMs.

Also on the same host, I have an Active Directory Windows 2012 R2 VM Server which is also a DNS server.

At the moment, this is the only Physical server on the network. There are no other hosts or servers.

For some reason, when I need to shut down this physical server: First, I shut down all the VMs on the server.

Second, I shut down my Active Directory/DNS server and Finally I shut down vCenter.

Then I shut down my physical server by shutting down my host and all of this done through a vSphere Client or Web client.

However, when I shut down my Active Directory/DNS server somehow it loses connection to all VMs on the host including vCENTER which  is still powered on.

I am seeing all VMs are listed as disconnected. I am then forced to shut down the host through a vSphere web client and I am not sure if the vCenter was shutdown gracefully or if it had any issues restarting.

IN MY CASE, WHAT IS THE PROPER WAY TO SHUT DOWN vCENTER?

PLEASE LIST STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS.

Thanks in advance...

PS. Where can I check to see since last reboot if vCenter started properly?

PSS. on reboot I get this screen. What is happening here?

[vipclubber]

Could anybody please advise?

[vembutech1]

Can't you login your vCenter appliance through IP ?. Since your DNS is lost, your connection is also lost. Before shutdown the servers, login vCenter appliance through IP. shutdown all servers, and shutdown vCenter appliance on the existing console connected through IP.

[RajeevVCP4]

Did not get your question.

What you want first ?

Shut down VCSA or ESXi host ?

Where VCSE is ruuning on same host  ?

Once you power off physical server (ESXi ) all virtual machine will be power off.

[vipclubber]

VCSA is installed on ESXi host.

So obviously, you can't shutdown ESXi before VCSA. Right?

I am logged in to VCSA in vSphere client (not web) via its IP address.

What are the steps to shutdown the entire server?

[vembutech1]

First login to the ESXi host through SSH ( after enabling SSH server ) through putty using ESXi server IP

2. Login to VCSA using vsphere client using appliance IP.( also through SSH )

3 on vSphere client, shutdown all other server one by one. Once all server shutdown proceed 4th step.

4. Shutdown VCSA appliance through SSH session.

5. Finally shutdown ESXi server through SSH session.

[vipclubber]

in ssh I assume you are referring to a simple shutdown.sh command?

If I am in ESXi host why can't I just shutdown vCenter from here? Why SSH into VCSA?

Since my last vCenter shutdown was forced how can I find out if vCenter booted successfully or if there were any errors I need to worry about?

[RajeevVCP4]

Here are the step.

Logon your ESXi by VC-Client (using root credential) go to virtual machine and shut down you VCSA or other VM which you want first.

Once all done you can power off you ESXi, there are lot of way for this.

[vipclubber]

How to enable SSH on vCenter Server?

[vembutech1]

Enable SSH on vCenter Server Appliance 6 (VCSA) | blog.ukotic.net

[vipclubber]

Thanks.

How can I determine if my last shutdown of vCenter Appliance was successful and if not how can I find errors caused by the improper shutdown?