After powering on a virtual machine, it is getting powered off automatically

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Virtual machine is being powered off automatically after powered on.

No errors reported on vSphere, we can see the power on tasks being completed normally.

Environment

vSphere all versions.

Cause

This is not an issue tigered on vCenter or ESXi.

The power off of the virtual machine on this situation is caused by guest OS level or by an external automated process.

Resolution

By default, vSphere doesn't have any trigger for an automatic power off or shutdown of the virtual machines.

Once a virtual machine is powered on it will remain powered on until an specific request is made.

That request can be due to rules created manually on solutions (i.e.: Aria Operations or third party scripts) or a request on the guest OS level.

To validate the VM can stay powered on check the following:

1. Confirm there are no tasks on the virtual machine to power off or shutdown the VM.
   If there are any tasks check the "Initiator" of them to identify the source of the automatic power off
   
   
2. Confirm the virtual machine can be powered on for a long period if it enters on the Setup menu (BIOS or UEFI)
   If a VM can stay powered on for an indefinite time, that means that the automatic power off is being trigger when the guest OS is being loaded.
   
   
3. Validate the guest OS is not triggering a shutdown nor crashing during it's boot.
   In some cases a high usage of CPU or memory from the guest OS can trigger external solutions tasks to power off the VM.
   A Guest OS can trigger itself to halt due to problems happening during the boot.