APC Power Chute Network Shutdown with VMWare and Guest VMs
Hello Experts,
I have three Dell PowerEdge servers with VMWare ESX 4.0 installed connected to two APC Smart-UPS units. I currently have ten guest systems on the VMWare hosts, mix of 2003 and 2008 servers. I need to find a way to gracefully shut down the guest systems and the host systems in the event of power loss. I have been doing some checking on the web and APC site, and found that there are two management cards available for the UPS units (AP9630 and AP9631) along with the Power Chute Network Shutdown software. I have seen references to various setup options, installation of an agent on the guest systems, installation of software on the host systems, etc. I am looking for clarification and best practice. What is the recommended way to configure the UPS units and the PCNS software for a VMWare environment? Do you install an agent on the guest systems, and also on the ESX hosts, then when an event triggers the shutdown process, do you set a delay so that the guest systems have time to shut down before the hosts? I have also seen references to setting up the UPS units in a redundant configuration, but the article I read did not mention if either of the management cards noted above would support that. Any information regarding how to set this up for a VMWare environment so that the guest systems are gracefully shut down, then the host systems, would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks very much,
Russ
I have three Dell PowerEdge servers with VMWare ESX 4.0 installed connected to two APC Smart-UPS units. I currently have ten guest systems on the VMWare hosts, mix of 2003 and 2008 servers. I need to find a way to gracefully shut down the guest systems and the host systems in the event of power loss. I have been doing some checking on the web and APC site, and found that there are two management cards available for the UPS units (AP9630 and AP9631) along with the Power Chute Network Shutdown software. I have seen references to various setup options, installation of an agent on the guest systems, installation of software on the host systems, etc. I am looking for clarification and best practice. What is the recommended way to configure the UPS units and the PCNS software for a VMWare environment? Do you install an agent on the guest systems, and also on the ESX hosts, then when an event triggers the shutdown process, do you set a delay so that the guest systems have time to shut down before the hosts? I have also seen references to setting up the UPS units in a redundant configuration, but the article I read did not mention if either of the management cards noted above would support that. Any information regarding how to set this up for a VMWare environment so that the guest systems are gracefully shut down, then the host systems, would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks very much,
Russ
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Personally, and at the organisations I've worked at, they prefer to control the hosts, and get the software to instruct the hosts to shutdown, which in turn causes the VMs to get shutdown. BUT, this can take a long time and it may not be immediate as shutting down each VM by using an Agent in each VM.
So you may have to evaluate which you want to do.
So you may have to evaluate which you want to do.
ASKER
Thanks again for your help hanccocka, I appreciate it.
no problems, glad I could help.
ASKER
Thank you very much for your help, and my apologies for the late reply. We had an emergency (tornado) at one of our sites last week. At any rate, I would like to clarify a bit. If I understand the options correctly I would need to use both the PCNS agent on the VMs and the PowerChute Network Shutdown for VMWare for each host. Then I would use PCNS to monitor the UPS's and shut down when there is an outage, and following that the PowerChute Network Shutdown for VMWare software would then power down the hosts? Or do I need just the PowerChute Network Shutdown for VMWare software, and configure the hosts to shut down the guest VMs when there is a power outage. If there is a choice between the two, is one generally considered more reliable, ie, should I have the ESX hosts initate the powering down of the guest VMs or is it better to use the UPS software (PCNS) to shut them down?
Thanks again,
Russ