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janhoedt

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VMWare ESX: autostart

Hi,

I would like to autostart vm's when ESX-es in my lab boot.
However, I can only define this on host-level, not  on cluster-level so I wonder if I do not boot this host in my lab, will the vm be started?

J.
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HaiFai
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No its not going to start in different esx :/
i was wondering same thing few mont a go why they havent done cluster level autostartup.
No, they won't, unfortunately. This thread confirms:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/262476

..as well as on pg. 21 (NOTE section) of the Availability Guide here:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_availability.pdf

Sorry.

~coolsport00
If you have a HA-Cluster, VMs will be restarted automaticaly if a host dies, so nothing to matter about. If you have VMs that are not affected by HA, e.x. using locale storage, you can set the autostart in the hosts configuration per VM. At cluster-level you can also set startup-priorities for the VMs to get important VMs started first. Unfortunately this is not the same as the host-based startup-delay. There is no other option in VMware until now (using esxi 5 here).
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
It is not recommended to use the Auto Start function at the Host level with a Cluster and HA enabled.

Edit the HA Cluster settings and change VM startup in HA Cluster settings
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janhoedt

ASKER

HA is only about RESTART, not about starting a vm.
I can only advise what VMware recommend that in a HA Cluster, it is not recommended to Auto Start VMs using host settings because it will conflict with HA.
You can't configure VMs for CLUSTER auto-start with host...only directly on host.

~coolsport00
if your VMs are HA Protected they will be started for you on host startup, across your HA cluster, without the need to specify autostart.
That is true - the VMs do come back up with the host upon reboot. BUT..you can't set a 'priority' setting like in the Startup/Shutdown area (again, see Community Thread/post I provided).

~coolsport00
In a HA-cluster, the VMs will come up after reboot of the host in the same state as before the outage, meaning VMs, that were shutdown properly before will stay down.
And that is exactly what it should not do. It should alwys start (for me, not ha by design).
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cdfs
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Well configure Auto Start on each host, against VMware recommendation.
Should it work or will it work?
configuring autostart against VMware recomendations in HA will probably break your VMs...