Here is a scenario we are tossing around. I'd like to go entirely virtual in the next year. If I were to virtualize my vCenter 5.1 and all of my DCs onto a 3 host cluster. What is the startup procedure in the event I have to power all hosts down? Is logging on locally to one of the hosts still an option on 5.1?
Yep you can still login to the hosts locally using the vSphere Client as long as you have the root password.
Your startup priority would be:
High - DC
Medium - vCenter
Low - Everything else
Just as a bit of a wrench in the works. What if lockdown mode was enabled? At that point am I limited to console only access to get started back up?