Understanding the Shutdown Delay setting for ESX hosts
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Understanding the Shutdown Delay setting for ESX hosts

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Article ID: 332760

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes how the Shutdown Delay parameter in the Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown settings of an ESX host is used.
For more information on troubleshooting shut down issues, see Virtual machines do not shut down gracefully (1008182).


Symptoms:



Resolution

Shutdown delay is the maximum time the ESX host will wait for a shutdown command to complete. If the Virtual Machine does not shutdown within the delay time specified a power off is issued to the Virtual Machine.

When an ESX host is shut down, the host follows this process:
  1. Autostart Manager initiates the automatic shutdown of the first Virtual Machine. The shut down is one of the power operations (Power Off, Guest Shutdown or Suspend) depending on the configuration.
  2. Autostart Manager waits the amount of time specified in the Shutdown Delay parameter for the Virtual Machine to complete the power operation.
    1. If the power operation is completed in less time than specified in the Shutdown Delay, the ESX host begins to shut down its next Virtual Machine.
    2. If the power operation is not completed within the time specified in the Shutdown Delay, the ESX host sends a power off command then then begins to shut down its next Virtual Machine.


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