Large Number of VMs Power Off Suddenly But ESXi Is Accessible Still

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

A large number of VMs in your Environment suddenly power off and are unable to power on again despite the ESXi or vSphere web UI being accessible still. 

Environment

VMware ESXi

Cause

If an ESXi host's web UI is still accessible after noticing a large number (or all) VMs in the environment power off suddenly, it is very likely caused by a storage issue. This could include: 

• Datastore becomes inaccessible. This could be due to:
  • Backing Storage failure.
  • Datastore in an Inaccessible state.
  • All Paths Down event.
  • Permanent Device Loss event.

Resolution

If you are experiencing a backing storage hardware issue, please contact your respective storage vendor to assist. 

If your underlying storage hardware appears to be healthy, the following resources may help identify an issue on the ESXi side:

• Datastore in an Inaccessible sate
• All Paths Down and/or Permanent Device Loss Events

If neither of the KBs above match with the symptoms your environment shows, the VMs may have been powered off for another reason. For more details, please see Determining why a VM was powered off / restarted / rebooted

 

If none of the above resources help with identifying the root cause, please contact Broadcom Support for further assistance.