Guest OS-initiated virtual machine shutdown without vCenter events
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Guest OS-initiated virtual machine shutdown without vCenter events

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Article ID: 400332

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

  • A virtual machine powered off unexpectedly.
  • No vSphere task, event, or external action was recorded in vCenter Server to indicate that the VM was intentionally powered off.
  • A virtual machine will not stay powered on. When the virtual machine is powered on, it shuts down again automatically.

Environment

  • VMware ESXi
  • VMware vCenter Server

Cause

The power-off was initiated from within the Guest Operating System, not through vCenter, automation tools, or external user activity.

Evidence from /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<vmName>/vmware.log confirms the shutdown was triggered internally by the guest OS:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z In(05) vcpu-2 - Guest: vsep: AUDIT: VFileSocketMgrCloseSocket : Mux is disconnected
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z In(05) vcpu-3 - E1000: e1000e-- tx queue 1 is enabled.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z In(05) vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PM Soft Off.  Good-bye.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be powered off.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z No(00) vcpu-0 - ConfigDB: Setting softPowerOff = "TRUE"

This log entry indicates a soft power-off request, typically triggered by a shutdown command within the OS, either manually by a user, by a scheduled task, script, or via a system process.

Resolution

Engage the Guest OS vendor or the operating system support team to investigate the cause of the shutdown from within the guest.

Additional Information

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