Virtual Machines Do Not Restart on Another Host When the ESXi Host Becomes Not Responding and vSphere HA Isolation Response Is Set to Disabled

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• A host enters a Not Responding state in vCenter Server, and vSphere HA does not restart the virtual machines on another host.
• Virtual machines remain registered on the affected host when it goes into a Not Responding state.
• The virtual machines appear as disconnected in vCenter Server.
• The virtual machines are still powered on and running on the affected host.
• vSphere HA detects and triggers a Host Isolation state.
• The Host Isolation Response in vSphere HA is configured as Disabled.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

When the Host Isolation Response is set to Disabled, vSphere HA does not take any action on the virtual machines during a host isolation event.

Resolution

Configure an appropriate Host Isolation Response setting in vSphere HA to allow virtual machines to be restarted during host isolation events:

Steps:

• In vCenter Server, navigate to the cluster.
• Go to Configure → vSphere Availability (HA).
• Edit the HA settings.
• Set Host Isolation Response to one of the following options:
  
• Power off and restart VMs (recommended for most environments)
• Shut down and restart VMs (requires VMware Tools and graceful shutdown support)
• Save the configuration.
  
  Note:
  By default, vSphere HA is configured to Power off and restart VMs. If this setting is changed to Disabled, vSphere HA will not restart virtual machines during host isolation scenarios.