Installation guide

C H A P T E R 2 Creating and Configuring Virtual Machines
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Shutting Down and Restarting a Virtual Machine
ESX Server can signal the guest service to shut down or restart a virtual machine. After
the guest service receives a request to shut down or restart, it sends an
acknowledgment back to ESX Server.
You can send these requests from the VMware Management Interface or the service
console’s command line.
Whether it is possible to shut down or restart a virtual machine depends on the state
of the virtual machine.
Shutting Down or Restarting a Virtual Machine from the VMware Management
Interface
You can click to shut down or to restart a virtual machine from the VMware
Management Interface. After you select one of these operations, you should click to
the Users and Events page for this virtual machine to respond to any messages that
require a response.
Shutting down is the equivalent of using the guest operating system’s shut down
command, then turning off power to the virtual machine. Restarting is the equivalent
of using the guest operating system’s restart command.
If you receive an event log message saying, “You will need to power off or reset the
virtual machine at this point,” you must connect to the virtual machine with a remote
console and click Power Off or Reset to complete the operation.
The power off and reset commands are not available while these operations are in
progress.
You can also force power off or force reset from the menu. These commands bypass
the guest service and perform the virtual equivalent of shutting off the power to a
physical machine or pressing a physical reset button.
For more information, see Changing the Power State of a Virtual Machine on page 96.
Shutting Down or Restarting a Virtual Machine from the Command Line
You can shut down and restart a virtual machine from the service console command
line using the vmware-cmd utility.
The following commands return you to the command prompt immediately, before
they finish executing, although the shut down or restart process may take some time
to complete:
vmware-cmd <vm-cfg-path> stop <powerop_mode>
vmware-cmd <vm-cfg-path> reset <powerop_mode>