vSAN Cluster Shutdown Wizard fails with error: General vSAN error. cluster domain-c### has cluster power off/on running vcVMPoweredOff

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

When shutting down multiple vSAN clusters managed by the same vCenter the below error is received via the Shutdown Wizard of the next cluster being shut down:

General vSAN error. cluster domain-c### has cluster power off/on running vcVMPoweredOff <where the cluster listed is the cluster first shutdown>

 

Environment

VMware vSAN (All Versions)

Cause

The second cluster couldn't complete the shutdown task as the vCenter VM resides on the cluster and was still processing the first cluster shutdown task.

From the vsan-health-service.log via vCenter 

Start of the first cluster shutdown task

2026-03-20T19:40:56.177Z INFO vsan-mgmt[2092931] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::PerformClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] ClusterPowerActionTask start for cluster 'vim.ClusterComputeResource:domain-c1##', spec (vim.cluster.PerformClusterPowerActionSpec) {
  targetPowerStatus = 'clusterPoweredOff',
  powerOffReason = 'Scheduled maintenance'
} by user Company.NET\<user.name>

First shutdown task completes:

2026-03-20T19:50:36.849Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanVcObjectHelper::wrapper opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] Finish execute _GetClusterHostInfosInSingleExecutor
2026-03-20T19:50:36.849Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanRebootUtil::MoveNext opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] target None, currentPowerStatus hostsPoweredOff, nextStatus clusterPoweredOff, progress 100
2026-03-20T19:50:36.850Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::_DoClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] toAchievePowerStatus None
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::log opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] Profiler:
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   ClusterMembers: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   ClusterState: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   GetState: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   Hosts: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.851Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   MetroConfig: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.860Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::log opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] Profiler:
2026-03-20T19:50:36.860Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   SetState: 0.01s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::_DoClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] Successfully complete _DoClusterPowerAction
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::log opID=agw-0003389-4fb3] Profiler:
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   Checking HA: 0.01s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   Checking vCLS 2.0 VMs deployment state: 0.00s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   GetNotPoweredOffVms: 0.00s, 0.01s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   PerformClusterPowerAction.GetClusterHostInfos: 0.03s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   _FinalVerify.GetClusterHostBasicInfos: 0.02s, 0.02s, 0.01s
2026-03-20T19:50:36.866Z INFO vsan-mgmt[935152] [VsanPyVmomiProfiler::logProfile opID=agw-0003389-4fb3]   clusterAdapter.GetState: 0.00s

Start of second cluster shutdown task:

2026-03-20T19:50:07.598Z INFO vsan-mgmt[1820745] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::PerformClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003805-5b8f] ClusterPowerActionTask start for cluster 'vim.ClusterComputeResource:domain-c2##', spec (vim.cluster.PerformClusterPowerActionSpec) {
  targetPowerStatus = 'clusterPoweredOff',
  powerOffReason = 'Scheduled maintenance',

} by user Company.NET\<user.name>

Second shutdown task errors out:

2026-03-20T19:50:20.920Z INFO vsan-mgmt[943663] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::_DoClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003805-5b8f] toAchievePowerStatus vcVMPoweredOff
2026-03-20T19:50:20.921Z ERROR vsan-mgmt[943663] [VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl::_DoClusterPowerAction opID=agw-0003805-5b8f] _DoClusterPowerAction error: toAchievePowerStatus:
vcVMPoweredOff
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "bora/vsan/health/vpxd/pyMoVsan/VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl.py", line 650, in _DoClusterPowerAction
  File "bora/vsan/health/vpxd/pyMoVsan/VsanVcClusterPowerSystemImpl.py", line 379, in _PowerOffVCVM
Exception: cluster domain-c1## has cluster power off/on running

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

In the above example the two shutdown tasks overlapped by 16sec causing the second shutdown task to fail mid process.

Resolution

After you see all hosts go to not responding state in vCenter and confirmed all hosts of the cluster are shutdown via server KVM (iDrac/iLo) wait at least 5 more minutes before trying to shut down the cluster containing the vCenter VM to ensure all shutdown tasks for other clusters have completed.

If the Shutdown Wizard already has the error just click on "Resume Shutdown" and the shutdown process will resume were it left off.