Can't shut down ESXi 5.5 host fully

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Issue is... when issuing a shut-down to the ESXi 5.5 host, it will not power off completely.

The order of events is:
- manually shut down all VMs and verify down
- issue shutdown (vsphere client or direct keyboard / monitor)
- a minute or two goes by, then it stops responding to pings
- 10 seconds later, the keyboard lights go out, and the hard drives park their heads

At the moment it should power down physically, instead, the CPU temp (when read from BMC) goes up 25C+. Screen stays up with the VMware ESXi typical all-black idle screen, hung / static. Keyboard is inactive, no caps lock / num lock. Cannot re-plug USB keyboard.

This is preventing what would otherwise be a decent shutdown using a CyberPower UPS. It would be nice to trigger the ESXi shutdown and not have it ramp up its power consumption when the system should be off, since the UPS handles all network devices as well. It's just going to waste battery. (Also, in case it means anything, had to load the I210 drivers that I thoght were a part of the base 5.5 install, so its a modified file to add those.)

Thanks for any advice!

EDIT to add system specs:
P9D-E/4L
E3-1245v3
4x 8GB ECC DDR3 1600
Samsung 840Pro 256GB
Neutron GTX 120GB
Seagate 750GB
2x 9300-8i
Sandisk Fit 8GB USB drive
 
Last edited:

Rhinox

Member
May 27, 2013
144
26
18
If you talk about "decent shutdown using a CyberPower UPS" then you must use some script for it. Maybe you could past it here...

BTW, for ESXi it is not enought to issue "shutdown" command in the console. It must be followed by "poweroff"...
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Thanks for the reply. This was all just in-prep for adding the UPS. That's not a factor quite yet.

Just trying to do a regular old shut-down of ESXi. It just won't. It stays on, hardware wise, and ramps up the processor like it's hung at the moment power should be killed, at the end of the shutdown sequence. Same result when in maintenance mode, using the vsphere client. Shutdown does not go fully down.
 

Rhinox

Member
May 27, 2013
144
26
18
If you are considering UPS for ESXi, have a look at NUT (network ups tools). There is ESXi-version (vib) too, albeit only client. So you could have NUT "master" server running on one VM (with UPS com/usb-port pass-through connected) and NUT-"slaves" on all the remaining VMs and ESXi, doing correct shutdown whenever needed. No need to play with scripts, ssh-keys, login/password, etc...
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
APCUPSD and a VMA from virtuallyghetto works pretty good.

The idea really is to not have to do this :) better to have enough power to alert and get in and shutdown properly, since most major apps don't take kindly to having a shutdown executed against their workflow..
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
I'm using the CyberPower virtual appliance. That part was simple. It logs in and shuts down ESXi for me. VMs auto start / stop with the host.

The issue is independent of the VMs or UPS. Just plain vanilla configuration (CPU, mobo, memory, USB with ESXi). It will not shut down when commanded to do so in vSphere. It locks the machine up at the moment it should be powering off. Can't get to the bottom of that issue. Looks like an issue with ESXi itself.
 

Chuckleb

Moderator
Mar 5, 2013
1,017
331
83
Minnesota
I've been meaning to try this but keep putting it off. Do you need the licensed version of VMware or does the free one work? I thought that you needed CLI access or something, I forgot which.

Thanks for reminding me of this project that I forgot to do though.... Downloading the appliance now.
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
sounds like the drivers for the motherboard are incomplete as far as power management, does it show in vcenter your power load under advanced performance ?
 

timwalter24

New Member
Feb 9, 2014
2
0
0
Hi everyone,

Just found this thread by googling for a solution to this problem. My setup is very similar but my mainboard is an ASUS P9D-I. I also use a patched vSphere 5.5 installer because of the intel ethernet chips. I can see all voltages, cpu temp and fan rpms just fine in the vSphere client. The machine runs fine it just don't power off after shutdown :(
 

timwalter24

New Member
Feb 9, 2014
2
0
0
Hi,

I have just tested the same machine with a linux live cd. It shuts down and powers off as expected so it's definitely not a hardware problem.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
3,184
1,545
113
Possibly an ACPI version levels issue? See if your MB has options to select ACPI v1.0/2.0/3.0. Change it up/down and see if you get a different result.
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Hi,

I have just tested the same machine with a linux live cd. It shuts down and powers off as expected so it's definitely not a hardware problem.
Same here... did a plain install of Win8 as a test, and was able to shut down without issue. May try earlier versions of ESXi to see....
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Possibly an ACPI version levels issue? See if your MB has options to select ACPI v1.0/2.0/3.0. Change it up/down and see if you get a different result.
The only ACPI options in the bios are:

ACPI settings:
Enable Hibernation, enable / disable
ACPI SLeep State, S3 suspend to ram / disable

Other ACPI settings found:
BDAT ACPI Table Suport, enable disable
Under CPU - ACPI T state, enable / disable


Tested with the first two enabled and disabled, no difference. Still hangs on power off in ESXi. Have not tried 2nd two.
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
I've been meaning to try this but keep putting it off. Do you need the licensed version of VMware or does the free one work? I thought that you needed CLI access or something, I forgot which.

Thanks for reminding me of this project that I forgot to do though.... Downloading the appliance now.
I use free version, 5.5 currently. Had some issues to begin with and could not get it to receive the shutdown command from the appliance. Ended up enabling SSH, CLI from the console, then another setting that may be a problem (still testing) is the 5min time to shutdown. The setting in the appliance just above where you enter the username and password. Seems like less than 5min will break it. Testing over 5min now to see if that's having an issue as well.

EDIT to note.... it may not be the time, but rather the password value. If you change any values in the host shutdown section, retype your password or it will fail. Also, the "also turn off UPS" selection WILL still power down the UPS even if the power is restored, if you did trigger a shutdown (based on your time-settings). Kind-of annoying. Just dropped the host when the shutdown didn't work and that value was enabled, after replugging.

Great link to setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWyuXa85AIc
 
Last edited:

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
sounds like the drivers for the motherboard are incomplete as far as power management, does it show in vcenter your power load under advanced performance ?
Under the "power" drop-down in performance, it does show an estimate of watts (which is WAY off... around triple what's being pulled from the wall.)
 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Another interesting thing, power related, with this setup (haswell / P9D-E/4L) is that when the system is idle... it will all of a sudden ramp up for no reason at all, and use 25% of the CPU power. Both wall power, temps, and graphs represent this. Roughly 10w increase in wall power. In this graph, the system is 100% idle. You can see boot, idle, then a weird ramp-up for no reason. No VMs are running here.

 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Seems to be something under the "system" drop down, and titled twice in the legend. Once as "host" and another as "host/system." This is a fresh reboot, and in maintenance mode.

 

ZeroOne

Member
Sep 13, 2013
52
6
8
Ok..... wow. Shutdown problem solved. ASMB7-iKVM. Pulled it, and am able to shut down properly. Does not hang at high cpu usage anymore. Win8Pro never had a problem shutting down but ESXi does, with this installed. Checking on the CPU usage problem.... but so far, flat line at cpu usage. Appears to be an IPMI issue. Not sure if that's with the motherboard, add-on card for IPMI, or ESXi 5.5 itself, at this point.