Stop-VMHost

[Sebbee]

Im confused about how to shut down my ESXI host.

Will this command (Stop-VMHost) also stop all running VM-guests gracefully?

[LucD]

Is the ESXi node part of a cluster that has DRS enabled?

If it is not, the Stop-VMHost will come back with an error when there are powered on VMs on the node.

If you add the -Force parameter, the power off will take place, effectively killing, not a graceful shutdown, the active VMs.

Those VMs will be left with the 'Disconnected' indication.

[Sebbee]

No, it's a standalone host.

So I need to do a "Stop-VMGuest" on every guest first?

My problem is that I want to initiate the shutdown via PowerCLI from one of the hosts running on that exact ESXI-host..

So... if I do "Stop-VMGuest " on all guests first, then I cant do the STOP-VMHOST  from anywhere 😛

Is there no way to "tell" esxi to shut-down but also power-off the guests gracefully?

[LucD]

You can configure the autostart actions for a standalone ESXi node.

For example, this will tell the ESXi node to shutdown down the VMs gracefully when the node is powered off.

$esx = Get-VMHost -Name MyEsx

$auto = Get-View -Id $esx.ExtensionData.ConfigManager.AutoStartManager

$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.HostAutoStartManagerConfig

$spec.Defaults = New-Object VMware.Vim.AutoStartDefaults

$spec.Defaults.Enabled = $true

$spec.Defaults.StopAction = [VMware.Vim.AutoStartAction]::guestShutdown

$auto.ReconfigureAutostart

[Sebbee]

Hello, big thanks for your help!

It actually worked. It's so strange that the webgui still says that it wont do a graceful shutdown when I click shutdown without  being in maintenancemode, but it does anyway.

This is the output after running (yeah, I chickened out and powered down all manually except one I dont care about before testing 😛 )

Stop-VMHost -VMHost 192.168.1.8 -force -Confirm:$false

 

I also confimed in in the guest operating system:

dockerdebian:~$ last -x shutdown
shutdown system down 4.19.67 Sat Nov 9 14:39 - 14:48 (00:08)

But it still bugs me that pressing the shutdown-button in the gui gives this:

[Sebbee]

Seems like inserting images doesnt work. And no edit button in this forum?

Success: https://i.imgur.com/PD6plQa.png

This pops up when pressing shutdown in gui, even tho AutoStartManger-policy is set: https://i.imgur.com/xVqelti.png

[LucD]

That might be what the Force switch is doing.
I don't think you have that option in the Web Client.

[LucD]

Editing an existing entry can be done via Actions.

And adding images is in option in the edit window menu