I have a setup with a couple of ESX servers and two APC UPS. The ESX servers are govern by vCenter and I've deployed vMA (provided by VMWare VM) on one of the ESX hosts and configure it to target both ESX hosts. All guest VMs have vmware-tools running. I've also installed and configured PowerChute.
In the scenario where the power goes off and the UPS starts running on battery, I successfully receive and Alert/Event from PowerChute on the ESX hosts side, and the ESX hosts successfully initiates the shutdown sequence.
The problem that I have is that if the power comes back while the shutdown sequence is initiated, the VMs remain stopped. They are never turned back on. In the case ESX are rebooted the VMs auto-start, because of the ESX boot process, but if the power comes back before the ESX hosts are able to shutdown, the vms remain stopped.
The same is true for the ESX hosts - if an ESX hosts shutdowns all guest VMs, it exits maintenance mode and shutdowns itself. After the power comes back (the UPS switches OFF battery mode), the ESX is never started.
This was not the case when the ESX servers were connected directly to the wall power-sockets. In this case, when the power goes off - the servers immediately hard power-off, and when the power is back again - they auto-started and initiated auto-start on all configured guest VMs.
Do you have any suggestions how I might approach this problem? Is it required to receive any special Events on the ESX hosts side (from PowerChute) that the power is back on?
