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Determining whether virtual machines are configured to autostart

Details

VirtualCenter allows you to control the automatic startup/shutdown of virtual machines through Configuration > Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown.

If however, you are unable to connect to your host through VMware Infrastructure Client, you must use the service console to check if it is enabled.

Solution

Note: Before you begin, refer to Restarting the Management agents on an ESX Server (1003490) for important information on restarting the mgmt-vmware service.
 
To determine if your virtual machines are configured to autostart:
  1. Log in as root to your ESX host with SSH.
  2. Open the /etc/vmware/hostd/vmAutoStart.xml file in text editor.
  3. Search for a line that reads:

    <enabled>true</enabled>

    If you find the line, the functionality is enabled. If you do not find the line, the functionality is disabled.

  4. If you want to disable autostart for all virtual machines on the host, remove the line.
  5. If you want to enable the functionality, add the line immediately after the line ending with:

    </dynamicProperty>

  6. Save your changes and exit.
  7. Restart the management agents on the ESX host. For instructions on restarting the agents, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX Server (1003490) .
Caution: For this change to take effect, you must restart the management agent. This poses a circular logic problem in the case where you are disabling virtual machine autostart because you want to restart the agent. In this case, use the vimsh command as discussed in Restarting hostd (mgmt-vmware) on ESX Server Hosts Restarts Hosted Virtual Machines Where Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown is Enabled (1003312) .
 
Additional Information
 
ESX Servers can be shut down from the command line using the halt command.
ESX Servers can be rebooted from the command line with the reboot command.

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1000163
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
    VMware VirtualCenter
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x
    VMware ESX 3.5.x
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x