Virtual Machines Power Off Automatically During SRM Test Recovery
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Virtual Machines Power Off Automatically During SRM Test Recovery

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Article ID: 429025

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

During a Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Test Recovery, specifically at step 8.3.3 (Guest shutdown), certain virtual machines (VMs) are automatically powering off. This behavior occurs when an error is encountered during the recovery process.

Users may observe the following symptoms:

  • VMs power off gracefully without a direct "Power Off" command initiated from vCenter or SRM.

  • The vmware.log for the affected VM contains entries indicating a guest-initiated shutdown:

vmware.log
vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PM Soft Off. Good-bye.
vcpu-0 - Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be powered off.
vcpu-0 - ConfigDB: Setting softPowerOff = "TRUE"

  • Windows Event Logs within the Guest OS may show a shutdown initiated by VMware Tools (e.g., reason code 0x80070000).

Environment

 

  • VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

  • VMware ESXi

  • VMware Tools

  • Guest OS: Windows

 

Cause

The shutdown is initiated by the Guest Operating System sending an ACPI power-down signal to the virtual hardware. This occurs because VMware Tools attempts to execute IP customization scripts (such as netshipcust.vbs), which are being blocked by local Anti-Virus or security software within the VM. When the script execution fails or is blocked, VMware Tools may trigger a system shutdown as part of the failed customization routine.

The PIIX4: PM Soft Off entry in the vmware.log definitively identifies the Guest OS as the source of the power-off request. If the request had come from SRM or the ESXi host, hostd.log would instead show a Power off request received task from vpxuser or vpxa.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure that VMware Tools and its associated customization scripts are not restricted by security software:

  1. Identify the Blocked Script: Confirm if security software (Anti-Virus, EDR, etc.) is preventing VMware Tools from running .vbs scripts during the customization phase.

  2. Whitelist VMware Tools: Configure the security software to whitelist or exclude VMware Tools processes and the execution of customization scripts (e.g., netshipcust.vbs).

  3. Validate Customization: Rerun the SRM Test Recovery to ensure IP customization completes successfully without being blocked.

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