VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Posted Jun 16, 2023 01:44 AM

    Hi, all.

    I'm planning to periodically shutdown and start ESXi hosts in a vSAN cluster.

    One thing that confused me is that I used the "Auto start" feature of ESXi to automatically turn on essential servers such as vCSA, AD, and Connection servers after the ESXi hosts are powered on.

     

    Since I don't need to power on all the VMs, I enabled "Auto start" for only the VMs I need, prioritized them and tested them, and ESXi powered on all of them.

     

    Is it correct that enabling 'Auto-start' will turn on all VMs within ESXi?

    Isn't it just the VMs I set a priority for that turn on?

     

    Better yet, is there a way to set it to only turn on specific VMs?

     

    Thanks for advance!

    Regards.



  • 2.  RE: Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Posted Jun 16, 2023 06:33 AM

    There is no VM autostart function when working within a cluster. The reason why you see that all VMs are restartet because most likely you triggert a HA Event rather than a shutdown of your host. So when Hosts/Cluster comes back all VMs starting.

    Regareds,
    Joerg



  • 3.  RE: Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Posted Jun 16, 2023 06:43 AM

    Hi,

    You can setup auto start settings per vm for which you want to enable or disable autostart feature. see below documents:

    https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.hostclient.doc/GUID-7D66BDEE-A02E-48B8-84C8-B989D251079F.html

    By default, its disabled, you have to enable it and then configure the required parameters.

    Regards,

    Sachchidanand



  • 4.  RE: Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Posted Jun 16, 2023 06:56 AM

    Note: The Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown (automatic startup) feature is disabled for all virtual machines residing on hosts that are in (or moved into) a VMware HA enabled cluster. Automatic startup is not supported when the virtual machine is HA enabled. As a result, starting with vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1, the Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system is available though enabling this feature has no affect at this time.



  • 5.  RE: Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jun 16, 2023 07:51 AM

    Why would you periodically power off a vSAN server?



  • 6.  RE: Does the 'Auto Start' feature turn on all VMs by default?

    Posted Jul 06, 2023 01:46 AM

    On weekends, the air conditioning in the LAB server room is down and the servers get very hot.....

    This is to ensure that it is turned off on Friday and then turned on again on Monday.

     

    Thanks for reply !