VMware vSphere

 View Only

  • 1.  Reboot after PSOD crash?

    Posted Jun 02, 2010 07:20 PM

    Can I configure VMWare to auto-reboot after it crashes? I have a server that crashes out to the Pink Screen Of Death every few weeks. At some point I will move the VMs to more stable hardware, but for now I need ESXi to just reboot instead of hang. I don't have 24x7 availibility in my datacenter so when it hangs at the pink screen I'm SOL until I can drive there.



  • 2.  RE: Reboot after PSOD crash?

    Posted Jun 02, 2010 07:35 PM

    ESX does not provide this functionality. What you can do is to add a network-based ups that you can use to power off and then power on the machine. That will allow ESXI to start when power is restored.

    -KjB



  • 3.  RE: Reboot after PSOD crash?
    Best Answer

    Posted Jun 02, 2010 07:59 PM

    Welcome to the forums,

    What hardware are you using, If you are using HP perhaps you could configure ASR on the server through the BIOS (it is normally on by default)

    and set the timeout. This means that after you get the PSOD the server

    will wait the specified period of time and then do the hardware reboot.

    However to utlise this you will need to utilse the HP version of ESXi, or insert your server vendor of choice. as you will need the Vendor Management agents for this to work.

    The way that it works is that the agent that looks after the ASR

    constantly resets the ASR timer back to its value (ie if you set it to

    be 5 mins back to 5 mins). If the agent does not do this (ie PSOD) then

    the hardware reboots.

    I am pretty certain that unless you have a vendor approved version of ESXi not the Free version you will not be able to do what you wish

    That said, perhaps you would be better investigating the root cause of the PSOD.

    If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

    Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

    VMware Communities User Moderator

    Blog: www.planetvm.net

    Contributing author on "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://www.amazon.co.uk/VMware-VSphere-Virtual-Infrastructure-Security/dp/0137158009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256146240&sr=1-1]”.

    Contributing author on "[VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410|http://www.amazon.co.uk/VMware-Certified-Professional-VSphere-Study/dp/0470569611]”.



  • 4.  RE: Reboot after PSOD crash?

    Posted Jun 03, 2010 02:44 PM

    I am using SuperMicro servers, which do support a watchdog timer/ASR. I am using the free version of ESXi, with the install coming from the non-vendor-specific install image on the VMWare website. I'll have to play around and see if I manually add in support for the watchdog via the shell. I also picked up an TCP-enabled power strip on ebay yesterday and will explore that route with some monitoring and shell scripts. Thanks for the suggestions.

    Keep in mind that all of these options are basically hacks. I would strongly reccomend VMWare consider adding this as a configurable option in the future. This could be as simple as the "panic=15" boot loader parameter you can pass to the Linux kernel to reboot 15 seconds after a kernel panic.



  • 5.  RE: Reboot after PSOD crash?

    Posted Mar 11, 2011 07:23 PM

    For ESX4.1, you may try to use

    esxcfg-advcfg -s XX /Misc/BlueScreenTimeout

    XX is number of seconds to wait before reboot esx server after PSOD.  The default value is 0, which means the timeout is disabled. Thus, please put a small positive number here. Your ESX server will reboot automatically after taking crashdump.