How to start and stop the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

This article provides instructions to safely start or stop the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines.

Resolution

Note: When shutting down any virtual machines, select the Shut Down Guest OS option in the vSphere Web Client > Power menu.

VMware Cloud Foundation 2.0/2.1:
 

To stop the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:

 

EVO-Rack_LCM_Backup_Repository
All NSX_Controlller VMs
vrops
loginsight
nsx-manager
vcenter-mgmt
vrm
psc2-vrm
psc1-vrm
EVO-Rack_LCM_Repository
All EVO-Rack_ISVM VMs

 

To start the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:

 

All EVO-Rack_ISVM VMs
EVO-Rack_LCM_Repository
psc1-vrm
psc2-vrm
vrm
vcenter-mgmt
nsx-manager
loginsight
vrops
All NSX_Controlller VMs
EVO-Rack_LCM_Backup_Repository

VMware Cloud Foundation 2.2/2.3:
 

To stop the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:

 

All NSX_Controlller VMs
All vrops VMs (if present)
All loginsight VMs
All vra VMs (if present)
nsx-manager
vcenter-1
SDDC Manager Controller
psc-2
psc-1
SDDC Manager Utility

 

To start the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:

 

SDDC Manager Utility
psc-1
psc-2
SDDC Manager Controller
vcenter-1
nsx-manager
All vra VMs (if present)
All loginsight VMs
All vrops VMs (if present)
All NSX_Controlller VMs

VMware Cloud Foundation 3.x:

To stop the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:
 

All NSX_Controlller VMs
All vrops VMs (if present)
All loginsight VMs
All vra VMs (if present)
nsx-manager
vcenter-1
SDDC Manager 
psc-2
psc-1

To start the VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure virtual machines, use the following order:
 

psc-1
psc-2
SDDC Manager
vcenter-1
nsx-manager
All vra VMs (if present)
All loginsight VMs
All vrops VMs (if present)
All NSX_Controlller VMs

 

Note: After bringing the environment back up, issue the command esxcli vsan cluster get on one ESXi host to make sure all the hosts have fully exited maintenance mode and are participating in the VSAN cluster.

Additional Information

• In a multi-rack environment, the virtual machines in racks other than the primary rack should be shutdown first.
• After the Platform Service Controller (PSC) virtual machines are shutdown, it may be impossible to log into any connected solutions in the VMware Cloud Foundation environment.
• After the VRM/SDDC Manager Controller virtual machine is shutdown, name resolution within the VMware Cloud Foundation environment may be impaired.
• After the vCenter Server virtual machine is shutdown, it is necessary to connect directly to the ESXi hosts in the management Workload Domain to shutdown the remaining infrastructure virtual machines.
• If the entire VMware Cloud Foundation environment is being shutdown, including the ESXi hosts and network switches, the virtual machines in the non-management Workload Domains will need to be shutdown. Additionally, there will be an extra vCenter Server and NSX Manager virtual machine for each non-management Workload Domain in the management Workload Domain that will need to be shutdown.
• The VM startup/shutdown settings on the ESXi hosts in the management Workload Domain may start some of the infrastructure virtual machines but as they are migrated between ESXi hosts in the cluster by DRS, these settings will become less valid. If some of the infrastructure virtual machines are already powered on after a complete restart of the environment, continue with powering on the remaining infrastructure virtual machines in the suggested order.